PDA, cellphone, iPod, laptop, pager. We are truly mobile warriors, able to work anywhere, anytime. Our equipment makes us free to work anywhere we want and our work ethic entraps us and we work everywhere.
Doesn’t anyone else find it tragic that people ned to wear cargo shorts to go for an evening walk?
One pocket to hold their PDA. Another pocket to hold their iPod. And a cellphone clipped to their belt. Then there’s the wallet, tucked into a low pocket in the shorts because everyone knows that carrying your wallet (stuffed with customer loyalty cards and freer-than-candy credit cards) in your back pocket is bad for your back. And another pocket for the ring of keys, because you can’t carry them in the same pocket as the PDA or iPod because they’ll scratch the screen, and the wallet is already taking up the entire bulging pocket it’s jammed into.
Give me a break.
Technology was supposed to free us, not entrap us. It was supposed to improve our quality of life, not break our backs because we carry it everywhere with us.
I go sailing. The technological equipment on my boat consists of a compass and a radio (both required by law), and a hand-held GPS unit. Granted the GPS is a luxury, but it’s the only one on my boat. I do have a little inboard diesel engine, but it’s only used to get me in and out of harbor. I could probably use long oars to achieve the same function.
A couple docks down from my 20 year old 26 foot sailboat is a big beautiful brand-new 34 foot sailboat. It looks cool. He’s got everything. A wind generator. Radios, a television antenna, radar, a depth sounder, a chart plotter, two GPS units a weather fax system. He’s got air conditioning for Pete’s sake. Air conditioning!
Every time I motor my little sailboat out of the harbor he’s always frittering around with his equipment. I never see his boat leave dock, actually. Even more interestingly, people will walk BY his boat to look at mine.
There’s a message there somewhere.
If people feel trapped by their devices, then it’s their own fault.
J