Do you ever get tired of the newfangled stuff and feel a need to go old school? On occasion, I get tired of how complicated modern conveniences make life. It seems that whatever convenience we have gets evened out by an inconvenience.
For example, your nearby convenience store is great for picking up a quick item like milk or a soda. I think we all know that we pay a great deal more for that convenience than if we had driven down to the grocery store.
PDAs and smartphones are another example. They lend themselves very well to keeping your calendar, contacts, and other important information at hand. The price you pay is that it’s not exactly fast or easy to enter or edit information on a tiny keyboard with your thumbs. Let’s just say that you won’t be typing 40 wpm.
The other day, Mrs. Mata bought a cool coffee pot. It was programmable, self-cleaning, could adjust the strength of the coffee, and some other feature I can’t recall. Well, this sophisticated piece of kitchen machinery required the use of a proprietary water filter. What will happen when the company decides to stop making that filter? The carafe broke while pouring water, so we returned it and got a stovetop percolator from the camping section.
I seem to be returning to the old stuff in other areas too. For example, I now keep notes on paper first. It is much easier to keep track of thoughts this way. When I’m done, then I’ll transfer to digital. It seems when I’m on the computer generating a first draft of anything, I spend too much time fussing with all the features.
Computers are another modern convenience that inconvenience. For a computer, you need electricity. You need to buy software to make your computer useful. With web software, you need to subscribe to Internet. If you’re on the Internets, you need a firewall. You should also get an anti-virus to be safe. You need to back up your files. You need to manage your backups. Even with all this overhead, computers make our lives better to some extent, I think.
If I were mechanically inclined, I’d probably rebuild the engine on my old Aerostar so that it would run without the electronic stuff. Sure, it makes the engine run smoother, but if it goes haywire, it costs an arm and a leg to fix.
In summary, modern conveniences often complicate our lives. It makes me want to do things the old way, just so I can relax. But, this is the modern age. You can only get so far before somebody wants to synchronize, collaborate, or social network with you. Like the lottery, you have to play to win.
Posted by Shaine Mata
Posted via email from Shaine’s posterous
Shaine 