50+ Lifestyles

Just Saying…

The Curse of Modern Technology

I don’t believe in the “good old days.” Never did, even though a bunch of my friends recently tried to convince me times were simpler and more fun way back when. Here’s why.  I have a good memory.  Riding with my parents and four siblings across Kansas in late July in a 1961 station wagon equipped with vinyl seats and no air conditioning burned a sweat stain in my brain. During that same period, we had no air conditioning, so the house was hot. Throughout the winter, my job was to load coal into the “stoker unit” of my grandmother’s furnace. It was a dirty job that alternated between the blazing heat of the furnace and the frigid cold of the trip outdoors where we gingerly tossed the clinkers from the burned coal. For the most part, the only thing good about those old days is they are long gone.

Continuing with my sob story of those days just shy of three score years ago, I recall standing in the family line-up waiting for our 30 second visit with grandparents in a different part of the country. Telephone conversations were miserably short, especially when trying to send subtle five-year old hints on birthday and Christmas presents. Because kid conversations fell into the “seen not heard” category, opportunities to talk to my beloved Texas cousins 1,117 miles away were non-existent.   Today, I regularly pick up the phone and make calls to a brother in Alaska and friends in Florida with no definite purpose in mind.

Taking stock of the situation, our lives are blessed with some mighty cool techno-gadgets. Twisting that old saying just a bit, “Every silver lining comes attached to a dark cloud.”  Each and every wonderful breakthrough in technology comes with a curse. For the next few moments, let’s explore a few of the curses of modern life.

Going back to the “good old days” of phones. The phone was the best way of communicating, but there were rules.  The only phone calls between 9:30 in the evening and 7:00 in the morning were dire emergencies; things like deaths, dismemberment and drownings. Everyone answered in four rings or less if home. And, if no answer, the call was remade in 30 minutes. Today, calls seem to flow to my cell from the time I turn it on in the morning till the time I turn it off in a few minutes before bed. But, that’s not the worst of it.

There is a whole generation of people who use those god-awful text messages. For instance, my dear sweet daughter never answers her phone. For these youngsters, the proper etiquette is a text message requesting a phone call.  And, I hate text messages. Because I am blessed with millennial generation friends, I get my normal calls with a healthy dose of text messages sprinkled on top. Phone texts aren’t the only annoyance.

Facebook has developed a phone app which allows another whole level of text messages. Now instead of just getting messages from friends with my phone number, I get them from a vast array of people ranging from old school chums to social acquaintances from distant time zones. Most of these messages are social in nature, things like “we’rehaving a bonfire next Friday: or “hey we just watched the Iowa game.” You could mostly ignore them, except every once in a while there is an urgent message which again should have warranted a phone call.  But calls and text messages aren’t the only curse.

My lovely bride is addicted to movies and old TV shows.  Because of that we subscribe to internet delivered “streaming” services. Amazon Prime provides thousands of such programs.  Netflix advertises nearly 5,000 movies and 1,700 TV shows.  The opportunity for entertainment is endless and thus the problem. With a zillion free movies and TV programs available, finding the right one to watch turns into a curse. What’s more, finding the right movie to watch an hour before bed is an even greater challenge. Every time I pick a movie in the evening, it turns out to be one of those three hour marathons; depriving me of much needed sleep.

The final curse of the technology age is mobile based Google. Just yesterday I joined a group of friends at a local pub for a beer.  Midway through the conversation, I made the comment that lumber magnate Weyerhaeuser got his start across the street in Davenport. Before I could take a swig from my frosty mug, a Doubting Thomas in the group did an internet search to check my facts. Landing on the company website, he did a quick read and challenged my observation with the official history of the company, which says it started in 1900 in Tacoma Washington. Being called a liar, and having about three of those delightful Great River brews under my belt, I had to give him some schooling. Here is the proper information: In 1900, after years of successful Mississippi River-based lumber and mill operations with Frederick Denkmann and others, Frederick Weyerhaeuser moved west to fresh timber areas and founded the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company.

He got mad, but such are the curses of technology…
Just Saying…