As a college student, I am part of a generation of people largely connected to technology. Everywhere I look, at any point in time, someone is texting, IMing, emailing, Twittering, Facebooking… and while I do not by any means oppose communication, there are some things that I find completely unnecessary.
Somehow, in my household, I am the black sheep of this debate.
My teenage brother, as would be expected, spends almost every waking moment either on his high-powered gaming computer, his XBox 360, or his PS3. When he is forced to be away from home, he is never far from his mp3 player, or, at the very least, an issue of Game Informer.
My mother spends the vast majority of her limited free time either checking her email obsessively, racking up minutes and hours on the phone (with people she sees in person almost every day), or, at night, watching TV, which is a family activity.
Strangely enough, however, it’s not any of the three of us, but my soon-to-be-48-year-old father who cannot put the technology down. He was the very first one in the family to own a cell-phone, way back when. We have always had a steady procession of computers filing in and out of the house, starting with a black-and-white laptop back in the early ’90s. Today, he is the proud owner of two laptops, one of which is for back-up; two iPod Touches, an older model and a newer 64G; and at least six other mp3 players, left over from before the Touches, when he was using one for movies, one for music, one for podcasts, etc. That’s not to mention his two, top-of-the-line Canon cameras and all of the fancy lenses to go along with them. He refuses to read actual books, preferring instead audiobooks, or at the very least, eBooks, either of which end up on his Touch. He buys movies only to transfer them to his computer to watch later. He prefers to watch shows he has missed online, rather than just DVRing them. He has carried a PDA with him wherever he goes for as long as I can remember.
In contrast, I prefer a good book with real pages to a monotonous voice in my ear any day, and, while I do have a Facebook account I’m rather faithful to and this shiny new blog, I email as little as possible, IM rarely, and refuse to text anyone. My father is always on my case about how it would be easier to take notes on a laptop, rather than in the thick notebook I like to carry with me, or how it would be simpler for me to convert my video lessons to audio files so that I could listen to them in the car. However, I prefer traditional, analog versions of just about everything.
I don’t understand why someone would prefer to take the time to type out words one letter at a time on a phone, when it’s easier and cheaper to just hold the phone to one’s ear and talk. Not to mention, talking on the phone while driving, while somewhat distracting, is not nearly as dangerous as trying to text and drive. What are some of these people thinking?
I don’t understand why someone would prefer to watch a movie, while sitting at home in the living room right in front of the TV, on their computer. Isn’t the picture bigger and clearer and the sound better on a TV?
The biggest thing that I see that is so commonplace that I don’t understand is the need to text someone sitting right next to you. Maybe this is the college alternative to passing notes in class? I really hope that these people have unlimited texting. Otherwise, what an incredible waste of money. How hard is it to say something to the person next to you? Or if it’s so secret you don’t want others in the room to hear you, try waiting, or even pulling that person aside.
All said, I obviously have family and I also have very dear friends that exhibit this technological dependence. Seriously, though, while I love them, it’s confusing.
Faceless internet masses, a couple of polls for you. Am I just a technophobe? How reliant are you on these things?
thoughtleaf 