Aug 27 2009
No Tech
People often ask me why I’m not on Twitter. You will be amazed to hear that it’s basically my slothfulness rearing its pretty head. The truth is, it takes all of my muselette’s limited creative powers to write this blog. I also try to write a hundred words a day. And I can barely come up with anything interesting for my Facebook status a few times a week. My life isn’t that all that interesting, so it’s unlikely that I could could come up with pithy or poetic bon mots for the Tweeters out there. I may be one of Oakland’s few ennui-related deaths one of these days.
Also, I dislike the high school popularity contest aura of following or being followed on Twitter. I’ve been writing this blog for eight and a half years, and although I don’t currently have a site meter (the Doc is working on that), I have the feeling that my readers are a select and exclusive club, like all the best ones. I’m not interested in trolling for followers or comments, and that seems to be a big part of the Twitter experience.
Twitter posts, emails, and comments from viewers on news sites, such as CNN, appearing on the “crawl” at the bottom of the TV screen instead of the day’s headlines is an appalling development. That’s not news. It’s bad enough that newspapers are vanishing and we’re forced to read them on line, with a plethora of ads ever-increasing in size and number (and difficulty getting them off your screen and sending them back to hell, whence they came), without television news being full of people’s opinions instead of actual news. I’m interested in Anderson Cooper’s views, or Keith Olbermann’s opinions, but not in the opinions of some unknown schmo who probably knows nothing about the issue s/he is commenting about. Leave that to your personal blog or Twitter account and delight your many followers with it. Just keep it off the news.
I seem to be falling behind on technology, despite being a pretty early blogger. I have no interest in iPhones, and marveled at the folks who waited in line overnight to get one of the first ones (and then whined when the price went down the next year). I don’t want to play games on it or watch movies on a teeny screen. I can barely stand having a cell phone, and I use it primarily, almost exclusively, for work. You will not find me walking down the street and blathering to someone about what I had for lunch or what a hideous top Madison was wearing today. It’s a necessary evil which is useful if your car breaks down or you can’t find the person you’re meeting at the movies, and that’s it.
I never text unless someone sends me one. It makes sense to me that my boss will send me one when he’s in a meeting, needs some info, and doesn’t want to talk on his phone or have its ringing interrupt the meeting. But it doesn’t make sense to me to sit there pressing tiny buttons 5,000 times instead of just picking up the phone and calling the person. Or sending a quick email. Either one would be more efficient than texting.
When I take BART to the city, I’m amazed by how nearly everyone is plugged into their iPods, texting away, or on their cell phones. No-one is engaged with their surroundings or even taking the time to enjoy the sunshine and blue skies for the above-ground part of the journey. It kind of makes me sad, like the cars that have DVD players you can plug your kids into on a long car trip. God forbid they should enjoy the scenery, or talk to their parents, or play “I Spy” or try and collect license plates from different states. We used to drive from New York state to Maine (a 12 hour drive if you didn’t stop) and back every summer, and we got along fine without movies in the car. We didn’t have a TV or phone when we got to Maine, either, and we didn’t miss it, even into our teens.
With all these technological advances, though, can someone explain to me why no-one has figured out a way to send your home phone straight to voicemail, instead of having to let it ring? Now, that would be an improvement.
6 Responses to “No Tech”
I’ll tweet for businesses (very good tool), but that’s pretty much it. Ditto for facebook status updates. Unless there’s something tremendously cool to talk about. As for texting, I’ll have to disagree. For one, it’s cheaper than calling and two it’s easier to text “On my way” than to place a call; for couples, at least. It’s also quicker to send/retrieve than email and is always with you, unless you have a smartphone and your mail client is pushing mail. I’m with you on checking out the scenery, though I’d rather be listening to my music than someone else’s inane banter (typically on a phone).
What a Great entry Suzy.
We too used to take our kids for a 1,000 mile trip to the Atlantic coast. We used to do all the things that you mention. But, I have to say that when I realized there were children in a family van I was in, It pleased me to see how happy the kiddies were to be watching a favourite movie or drawing & reading new books etc. The parents would often point out various points of interest too. Life was remarkably serene. With a bit of organization, children do not have to be glued to the DVD’s. on journeys.
jx
well, my kids are not blessed with a portable dvd player so they have to amuse themselves with either the scenary, or the book/toy they’ve brought with them. And honestly, kids love to notice little details in their surroundings. The joy that emits from the backseat when they notice a dog in the car beside us, or a bird flying over head, is fabulous.
We borrowed a portable DVD on our roadtrip and it was a failure, the kids weren’t interested and the time it took me to set it up was twice that they were willing to watch the Disney-destroyed version of Winnie the Pooh (why did Disney do that, anyway? WHY?).
I refuse to twitter. Facebook is more than enough. In fact, I’ve considered signing off of Facebook too. I think all this online relating is hurting our relationships. Sure, in some ways it is connecting us, but on the whole why don’t we pick up the phone? Send a card? Or hell, even a real email instead of a joke/quiz/etc? People have the time to update facebook 50 times a day, or twitter, but they don’t have the time to really sit down and ask the people they care about how they’re doing.
That’s a really long way of saying that I’m on the same page.
I do understand business people who chose to text, first you don’t have to wait, is more efficient and it’s cheaper of course. The movies for kids on a long trip is also great if controlled by the parents, they always find the trip so long and you don’t here the famous words, are we there yet as often. As far as Facebook and Twitter, I find it takes away the face to face conversations and people tend to get carried away with their comments and carry on and by the end of the day, the subject has completely changed and twisted, so yes, most of these I stay away from. Too much time is spent by many on these sites, I cannot afford to waste my outdoor time.
I’m totally with you on the cell phones. Drives me crazy how many people are glued to theirs and answer them in situations where it’s really quite rude. Peter and I share 1 cell phone and I’m happy to never have it. I treat it like a home phone and am quite happy to be unreachable when I’m in transit. But then, I hate talking on the phone so….
Sometimes I catch myself being “one of those people,” and although I hate myself for it, it always happens again and again. I don’t know why it is, people my age (including myself, of course) have exceptionally taxed attention spans, and I wish I knew how to fix it. (Besides, of course, ditching the iPhone, haha…)