Disconnection (Personal)

Busy weekend.
Between our big day in the city and hawking candy bars in front of the Jewel/Osco, I can't really begin to describe it all. Fun--lots of quality time with my kid and interactivity with people in real time. Before a big wind with rain driving it blew in, we even managed a little top-down driving.
My server is down right now, has been for a while--gives me a chance to either read the Sunday paper or one of many books that have been collecting dust while I've whiled away the hours by the glow of the monitor.
Edit: Wasn't the server--was the router for the network. A nice Canadian man working out of Alberta, Canada helped me with it. Internet-free for 18 hours, yea ha!

I had a thought today.
My parents are just now hooked into a primitive form of Internet connectivity (56K modem dial-up).
Before this week past, they couldn't really relate to tales of the Internet with their ancient second-hand donation from my brother. Other than my Dad using email, the World Wide Web was essentially a foreign experience for them
I imagine they must have felt somewhat like I do of late.

I used to feel a bit disconnected and even a bit envious of people who owned laptop computers, but with the advent of many kinds of hand-held devices, wi-fi, and so on, I feel completely out of the loop. Instead of thinking how handy it would be to blog in bed like I might with a lap-top, I think dang, isn't there enough crap out there already keeping us connected all the time? .
A major trait these little gadgets share with the old fashioned behemoth PC's--and this concept isn't new--think cell phones, text messaging et al, is to disconnect the wireless person from the existence he is in at that moment.

People who are infatuated with their devices seem oblivious that the majority of us have no idea WTF they are talking about. As we desk or lap top Internet users get lulled into thinking "everyone" has (or even wants) web access, the gadgeteers talk as if everyone is geared up with an I-pod, Palm Pilot, and cellphone tricked out with a camera.

What did one do before these devices sucked up precious minutes of our days? Did we read, think, daydream? Heaven forbid, did we interact in real time with other flesh and blood human beings?

Gadgetry.
Who's got the newest-most-powerful-best-trendiest thingamabob and what cool things can it do?

Talk of new toys--it's all jargon--signifying nothing to me.
Your lovely hand-held device is no more than metal and circuitry and plastic. It's an object, a thing.
I "love" what my computer can do for me but I really don't get my cookies off by discussing it's relative merits all the time, because doing that moves me further away from "real life."

Comments

[Anne]

Well I can't speak for every introvert certainly, but before the time of the computer, I read alot. That didn't really involve much human interaction either. In fact, even less so. I don't those people REALLY connected to their devices would change their stripes if the devices were gone. We'd just find some other way not to have to deal with people. :>

[lakkris]

Interesting. I was confined to dial up this past weekend. It was very painful.

I also didn't have Tivo. Wow, I can't tell you how different it was to not be able to just rewind a few seconds...

[Cyn]

Funny in that ironic sort of way. ;)
I love what I can do with my computer--it's an information & communication treasure-trove.
What I don't love is obsessiveness with "things" to the exclusion of being in the present moment. Granted, the present moment may not be where we want to be--then I completely understand getting wrapped up in ones electronic device--but so often people seem to be interacting electronically to the extreme exclusion of doing so interpersonally.

Edit: I like Spender's new book title, "Nattering On the Net..." I'll have to investigate her more thoroughly.

[Vanessa]

One of my favourite articles ever was by Dale Spender, pointing out that all the things we say gloomily about computers disconnecting and de-education/ desocialising us, were all once said about the invention of books and the printing presses.

Funny, uh?