Addiction to Technology

Addiction to Technology by A.E. Neal (Please respect author and do not copy or publish without permission from author)





As we grow older, we become wiser, more attentive, and smarter. Our daily lives are filled with activities that require something involving modern technology. We have trained ourselves to wake up to the sound of the alarm clock with it's bright LED screen, not a rooster's crow. We drink our coffee made by a sophisticated machine requiring pre-filled K-cups and water. And perhaps we read the newspaper, wait a second, don't I have an App for that? Our days begin to fall into familiar sequence. Wake up, take a shower, make breakfast, take the kids to school...the list goes on. Do you find yourself following the same routine? I know I do.

Over the last ten years, our society has depended on technology for almost everything. What shall I cook for dinner? That's an easy question. Why of course, I'll just Google it! What was that song I heard and now I can't get it out of my head? I'll look for it on iTunes or maybe use that new App I got for my iPad.

My point is not that we've strayed from other methods of seeking information, but rather, we have become solely depended on it to answer everyday questions. Yes, I am guilty of all of the above.

During this past week, I challenged myself to complete certain tasks the "old fashioned" way. Don't worry, I haven't broken out the butter churner just yet. I made a list of specific things that I usually do daily and I picked three things I had to do without using modern technology, i.e. PC, iPad, iPhone, etc. And as you may have guessed, it was quite difficult.

Every morning I wake up, grab a cup of tea and check my Facebook page for messages. (I'm sure some of you are shouting, "Go without Facebook? Impossible!") I knew I needed the social network to connect with my fellow colleagues, so at the beginning of the week, I sent messages letting them know I would be away for a week.

During my short experiment, I realized I use it for more than just connecting with friends. I use it to speak my mind, share funny animal videos or quirky quote pictures. By not logging on, I found myself going through old photo albums, writing in my journal, and I even dusted off some old stationary and hand wrote a few notes.

On day three, I felt like I was going through withdrawals and my hands itched to click the familiar icon on my desktop, but I held my ground.

By day five, I had replaced my beloved Facebook with another, Twitter. I had cheated and let myself down. Finally realizing, I am addicted to social networking, not necessarily technology itself. In light of recent events, I needed to know what was going on in the world around me and the thought of having to wait to read the newspaper was like self-inflicting a medieval torture device.

However, I can proudly report that I was able to successfully go without technology for the other two items on my list. Number two: Follow a recipe and make dinner scratch. This is going to be too easy, I thought to myself. Luckily, my mother gave me hardback copies of Julia Child's, 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' for Christmas last year. On day four, I made the most amazing hollandaise sauce to drizzle over fresh steamed asparagus, but I had also gone through about a pound of butter. My husband was as happy as a clam, but my waistline would disagree.

Number three: Use a book bound thesaurus and/or dictionary while writing. This also posed some challenges, but I found myself traveling back in time to my freshman year in high school. I sat at my desk with a copy of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' with a look of horror on my face. My teacher had asked me to define the storyline. I searched my 14 year old brain high and low for the answer and came up short. She sent me to the library with her well-aged copy of The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. As it turns out, the old English words our friend Shakespeare used are not too common in a modern dictionary (Score: Student- 1 Teacher- 0).

So, I sit here with my own tattered and torn copies of the dictionary and thesaurus, flipping through pages and scanning through words like a kid in a candy store. And all while thinking to myself, I wonder if Shakespeare ever had a thesaurus. I know for darn sure he didn't have an App for that.