Agatha and the Twins

If one were to read through some of what I write, one would think I’m anti-tech. They might think, “The world has passed this old guy by and he’s just bitter about it.” But that’s really not the case. If you look closely, you’d see I’m really just anti-anti-social. There’s no question that tech has done a lot for us. I may question, “at what cost?” but I’m not dim enough to think we’ve not been helped by it.

These thoughts come as a result of my sister’s comment on the irony of reading 100 Things we’ve Lost to the Internet in digital format, so I thought I’d get to the distinctions and differences a little bit.

I’ve often mentioned the irony myself, that you read all of my “anti-tech” screeds through the means of the very technology I seem to scorn. But it really isn’t all the same. When I read for my own enjoyment, it shouldn’t matter that I’m holding a hardcover or a Kindle (although it does, in a small way, if only in the realm of heft). Likewise, it shouldn’t matter whether I read the news through an app or on a large sheet of paper. As a matter of fact, I could very well be saving more of the environment by going “paperless” in that (though, as I’ve mentioned before, we have yet to see the true environmental impact of the billions of smartphones, pads, tablets, computers, and their associated batteries).

I’ve fixed a car by watching how to do it on YouTube. I’ve used the internet to purchase countless items that I couldn’t easily get here in Korea. I’ve talked face-to-face with members of my family more often than I could ever imagine when I was a young Airman stationed here in the 80’s. So there’s definitely value in the internet.

Where I have most of my problems is in our overreliance on the thing – and our assumptions that everyone is able to use it with equal skill and efficiency. Like on a recent trip to the States, when I went into a restaurant and was instructed to scan a QR code at the table to see the menu. Well, my Korean phone doesn’t work in Austin, Texas, so now I’m expected to get the restaurant’s wifi password, connect, and then scan the code for the menu.  Yeah. Sounds like a small thing…but it’s still a thing. Throw in there the judgment and scorn heaped upon the idiot boomer by the young server who’s waiting 5 other tables – she just doesn’t have time for this crap – and you’ve pretty much soured the dining experience from the start. It’s all just one more big reminder that the world is passing us old people by.

But that’s minor. What about the constant phishing, spam, and time-suck with which we’re faced every day? It often seems like there’s no relief. And of course, what I covered yesterday — the lack of personal interaction in our communications. The not-knowing what someone may be feeling or thinking because we couldn’t see them or know their state of mind when they wrote that bizarre, late-night missive about whatever bothered them most that day. These things drive their wedges between people, and between generations more than ever before. The young have to have so much more patience with the older these days, and there just comes a point when it becomes too hard.

The closing scenes of the movie Minority Report come to mind for me. It’s a bit of a dream, but maybe ending up the way of Agatha and the twins really isn’t that bad. As a matter of fact, it’s downright inviting…