Today I had a think, dangerous
but it happened. Technology is what instigated it, am I a robot? Obviously I’m
not, as my 128k Spectrum was smarter than me never mind the quad processor
phone that fits in the watch pocket of my jeans.
My daily reliance on tech
however is what made me ask the question. The day starts with my phone as my
alarm clock, quickly leading to the checking of messages, email, social media; a laptop is my connection with work, the news and on the go TV; a tablet is my book
and magazine. At work I try not to print off anything and use purely electronic
documents (or soft copy, which is a really uncomfortable term for me). My
little bit to saving the world. (I do try other ways of environmental
conservation.) If it wasn't for spell check I would be compared to preschool
age spelling level, including grammer (spell check highlighted my poor spelling
of grammar, I have left if for poetic symbolism).
So what distinguishes me from a
machine now, when my day no longer operates without a thingamajig running my
life? So, I switched my thoughts to my outdoor life. “I go to the mountains”, I
tell myself “I don’t need technology when I’m in the fresh air, in the middle
of nowhere, surrounded by nature!
I have an OS map and a Silva
compass and I’m free from the ties of technology”
Then I think “Apart from my
phone, in case there’s an emergency and I need to contact the emergency
services, but that’s okay that’s to keep me safe.”
This then led to the bubble
bursting like the Hindenburg!
I use a website to plan my routes. I have an
etrex GPS in my pack for the (un)likely event of being geographically misplaced.
Sometimes I have my tablet tucked in my pack tracking my walk off-line on
Viewranger, to later upload to Social Hiking. Introducing further electronic
dependence when I return home. My camera, can that be included? Yes, as when
I’m sat on the couch with the laptop saving my pictures on the hard drive, with
the TV on in the background, then uploading those images on to Twitter orFlickr the electrical enslavement continues.
So I control my breath a little
better and calm down. I am a gadget geek, I don’t know how the magic works but
I try and learn the basics. I have just looked at upgrading my tablet recently.
I’d love one of the new GoPro’s, what I do with it I’d need to try and figure
out but I still want one. I have no real need for these extras and I am the
first to admit it.
Am I going to change my life
because of my minor panic attack this morning? In a word, No. What I will (try
to) do is minimise my exposure time to the cyber world. I have just bought this stunning book The Great Mountain Crags of Scotland by Guy Robertson and Adrian Crofton, published by Vertebrate
Publishing. It’s a beautiful book and I need to have a technology time out to
take it in.
I totally understand the way
everyday life is heading. I know my daughter whilst going through school will
likely gradually have less and less involvement with books and writing. Which
is a shame but her nursery were using the fruit based tablets so where does it
go from there?
What else can I do? What do you
do to minimise it? Do you minimise it or do you just accept it and embrace the
change?
I will have to think more on
this whilst in a calm environment. Probably during some outdoors time…
