Technology Overload

Don't you miss a slower paced lifestyle?  Like sitting on the front porch, waving to the neighbors as they pass by.  While I realize that technology has given us freedom by making some chores faster, it seems it has also stripped us of our basic freedom of just being.

I'm exhausted having to constantly learn something new.  Whatever happened to just using a product without having to read an entire tome on how to operate it correctly?  I'm getting older and retain less (with the exception of water) and by the time I learn everything, the manufacturer has come out with an entirely new technology.  It's driving me crazy.  I can't even watch a movie without having someone with a PhD, my husband or a 5-year old nearby to operate the movie for me.
Now I have two controllers each with about 450 buttons.  I bet the original astronauts didn't have as many buttons to press. I have to make sure to use the washroom before I watch a movie because if I'm lucky enough to figure out which buttons to use to get the movie started, I can never seem to figure out which ones pause the movie.  What are all those buttons for?  I mean, come on, there's start, stop, pause, mute, channel changer and volume.  What are the other 873 buttons for?

The cartoon, "The Jetson's" must have been what prompted the invention of microwaves.  When Jiffy-Pop came out, I thought that was pretty neat, until our present day method. I can't wait 'til I'm eighty to see how it will be made then. I say they'll bio-engineer kernels that you put in your mouth and the heat of your body will cause each kernel to pop. No waste. When you're full, you put the rest of the kernels back in the jar until you're ready for them.  Still, there's nothing like the smell of popcorn on the range as you  move the pot back and forth over the flames to rupture those mouth-watering kernels of pleasure.

My iPhone is my lifeline to the world and yet what's wrong with this picture?  It's supposed keep us connected, but I see it pulling everyone apart.  You see ten kids together each on their phone talking to other people.  Why don't they talk with the people they're with or go be with the people they're talking to?  I get in an elevator packed with 50 people in a 4x4 space only to see everyone whip out their phones and opposable thumbs start pounding. People don't converse anymore face to face.  We call a company only to press numbers to get to information. I see people in lines at the store doing returns and never once look at the person at the cash register or ask how their day was.

Don't you miss the party line?  (No kids, that's not the congo line or the bunny hop that you do at a wedding.)  Ah, those were the days for true entertainment.  Soap operas couldn't give us as much as the party line could.  You just quietly lifted up that handset and listened to the neighbor to hear what was going on in their lives. 

If I ever need a human connection, I visit my mother and we go Wal-Marting.  Yes, it's become a verb.  We went to buy a couple of items and spent two hours talking to people she knew.  In the thirty years I've lived in my present town, I would venture to guess I haven't run into people I know more than ten times.   I really miss that small town feeling.

We have become a world in where if we can't call it, click it, or cook it in less than 9.3 seconds, we feel like we're losing time.  We are losing time; time with neighbors, co-workers, loved ones.  For one night a week let's put down our technology and tune in to each other.  And then perhaps, technology won't drive us nearly as crazy.