Technology

Spring has sprung and everything is is in full bloom and spewing off the pollen. We love it, but we are sneezing and snarking.
The topic of technology always surfaces in some way when we get together with our friends. How do you like your new i-pad? What do you think about reading books on Kindle? How's your satellite working?
Every year I try to master something new: write a book, learn a new language, catalog the wild flowers on our place, and technology is an ongoing engagement.
In our frugality we do not have a data plan for our cell phones, and so we do not text. Actually, I cannot imagine why I would want to text anyone. If it's important I can call. I do not want to touch in to anyone in great frequency to tell them I am in the grocery store or the gas station or the toilet. Because I am so old it would never occur to me to do this. I grew up in the age of pay phones that one could use if you had to. Now, there are none of these and you are connected to your mother and your friends at every moment calling or texting on the cell phones.
We have everything one could use technologically: three computers, an i-pod, two smart phones. Overkill.
Seems we were freer in those old days, not so tethered to the digital things, letting some time pass while we figured out what to do.
And yet, I am absolutely exhilarated to think that this new digital global internet age has made possible the revolutions in the middle east! It makes me suck in my breath in joy, revel in the way of young people who can now communicate around the world.
So many of us love our Face-book and U-tube and could not imagine life without the ability to e mail and twitter.
But for us baby boomers and older, we came up in an age when we did not have to be connected every minute. We can actually go to the grocery store and buy what we need without checking with some "others" about this.
This digital world is like having gnats or flies always circling overhead and checking in every few seconds.
By the next generation, they will all be comfortable and no one will ever have a moment alone and they won't care because they won't have known about the wonderful freedom of being free!