Friday, November 2, 2007

Technology vs. Simplicity

My husband is a tech guy. He has our house wired. He makes things out of spare computer parts and these things do tricks like announce telephone callers. I would not say I am a technophobe; I'm not. I just don't like technology when there is a simpler solution. For a couple of years, on my husband's urging, I switched from a paper organizer to a PDA. We both had the same model. I was supposed to be able to beam my schedule to him. We were going to have a household synching station with a screen that displayed a common schedule. That never happened. Instead--once a month, I'd print out my calendar and give it to Mark. He would ignore the printout and ask me things like, "Don't we have something going on this week?" Now, we have a magnet wipe-off calendar that is divided by weeks. We have 8 weeks worth of family agenda, color-coded by person, on the fridge. It's the best family tip I have. Low-tech.

Still, there are things I use technology for. I do all my writing on computer. I depend on email to keep in touch. Don't try to take my digital camera away from me. But this week technology seemed against me. Computer problems. ATM card had a malfunction. Phone calls didn't go through. The sensor I have been wearing on my shoe to track my walking miles just went dead for no reason. It's been a pain.

Hubby just showed me a new camera card that automatically loads your pictures to a website over your wireless network. It sounds great, but the more I hear about the advance of technology, the more I long for simpler things: the feel of a book in my hand, a rocking chair, a hand knit scarf, warm soup in a handcrafted bowl, and a snoring dog by my side.

Mark and I have given some thought to building another house. It's probably 10 years away, but we ahve fun dreaming. I think it'll be something like Star Trek meets Little House on the Prairie.

1 comment:

fringes said...

Very nice post. I enjoyed reading this one the most (all of them were good).