I’m a middle age guy who still enjoys kicking back with my local Sunday paper. I can honestly say I didn’t go quietly when service to my 12-year-old Blackberry was finally turned off over the summer. I still use my old plug in GPS unit and listen to CDs and FM radio as my only means of getting my musical fix for the day. Moreover, I have no use for QR codes and can frankly say that there are a bunch of dusty DVDs on hold for me at the library. I still have long phone conversations with my friends and reserve my texting to sending short bursts of information just to get a quick point across. Call me a dinosaur, but this is my reality, as I proudly stand firm on my conviction that less technology is the best technology.
On a daily basis, we cheat ourselves out of the full package that life has to offer. Whether it be popping in ear buds in order to tune out others on the T or willfully avoiding an awkward but necessary phone call by sending an e-mail or text instead, the result is the same – a dulled, incomplete and inauthentic existence. In essence, we shield ourselves from the physical world by hiding behind a plethora of “digital crutches.” For better or worse, life needs to be experienced in the fullest and most authentic way possible, head on and unedited.
The net effect of our over-reliance on high tech devices not only serves to dull our visceral senses and perceptions, but at the same time, cheats us out of our most cherished institutions and traditions. We now need cell phones to gain entrance to almost all concert venues, as tickets are now completely paperless, and so are restaurant menus. You’d be hard pressed to find a text book at your kid’s $50K a year college. Not to mention, going to the movies now involves an online ritual of researching a title, selecting a seat in advance, and having your iPhone scanned upon arrival. And making new connections has been reduced to a swipe right on a glass screen!
In an already impersonal post pandemic world, the last thing we need is more harmful social change. We can utilize technology to the brim but the need for traditional real world interactions and experiences will always be imbedded in our collective DNA. Nothing is more frightening than the unyielding grip that the new crop of technologies seems to have on almost every facet of our lives.
Perhaps the key to reestablishing order is to unplug from the grid for awhile in order to experience life in the raw, once again. Or it may just be as simple as occasionally picking up that land line phone, leaving those ear buds behind when going to the gym, or dusting off that clunky desktop PC, like the one I used to write this article.
Scott Liftman is a freelance journalist who resides in Framingham.