Cumulative Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Too Much Technology

I feel the same way as Ann Patchett on the obsessive use of cell phones and text messaging:
My husband wants me to have a smart phone so that I would also have a GPS and a camera. He would like me to be able to look up the name of the young heroine in The Awkward Age, name the stars in the night sky, know the weather in Portland, download books, and read several international newspapers, because he does all these things on his phone and he loves it. He madly, passionately loves it.But I cannot, or I will not, and so we are locked in a long, tedious conversation which to him sounds like, This is an electric washing machine. It is an easier way to clean clothes than beating them on a rock in the stream. And to me sounds like, Bungie jumping is fun! Just tie this springy cord around your ankles and tip yourself into the ravine!
The truth is I do not need more information or more contact. If anything, I need less. I do not need to be reachable by phone and text and Skype while at the dry-cleaners. I try to think of a single instance in my life when anyone actually needed to get a hold of me that exact minute. I cannot think of one.
Me neither.

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