I realize most of you do not come to this blog to read about the realities of life, but I feel the need to vent about several things. If you are in no mood to read a venting, then I apologize. The staff here at HTH will find more pleasant things to post about later. However, it seems I can't seem to let several items go and here they are:
1. People who use their tech devices instead of grabbing the real thing.
I know this sounds very vague, but let me explain. Last Tuesday, I was sitting at Bible study and we were flipping through several verses when I realized I was the only one using a tangible book. Everyone else was using their iPads and iPhones. I am sort of a Luddite....
I know, go ahead and throw the stones. But I understand this a little, but then Mel and I were sitting in church and we were the only two in a whole row that were using a tangible book to look up the verses and this is what gets me. People bring their iPads to places instead of a book, but they use it for the book, they cover it with the covers that look like a book, and they read from it like a book. What are they gaining? It isn't faster? It isn't cheaper? It isn't less of a hassle? They took the time to buy it, charge it, cover it, insure it, download the application, etc. But instead they could have just grabbed one book. I see this everywhere. It makes me go crazy. Maybe I just don't understand it. Why wouldn't you just want to grab the real thing instead of something that is "like" the real thing.
2. Instagram....
For those of you who don't know, Instagram, is an application you can download that turns the pictures that you take on your phone and turns them into pictures that look like the old, over-exposed Polaroid pictures you have hidden at the bottom of your sock drawers. It just got purchased for 1 billion dollars: $1,000,000,000 by Facebook. That will be split 12 ways. But again, I don't really care about that, but I'm once again asking myself...if you want your pictures to look like old Polaroids, why don't you go make the real thing instead of trying to have something that is "like" the real thing.
3. GPS (Global Positioning System)
Lewis and Clark made it across the uncharted wilderness that would become the American Frontier without GPS. Magellan circumvented the entire globe without GPS. Columbus found his misguided way to the Caribbean without GPS. But in 2012, I know people who turn on their GPS devices to go places they go several times a week and know how to get to. I see people turning off their brains and listening to a voice and then doing whatever it says forgetting that companies pay Google, pay Garmin, pay etc to get you, the weary traveler to drive by their businesses. They forget they may take you way out of the way. They may not even take you where you punched in to go, but people still rely on them to go two blocks away to the place they've been driving for years. This makes me go crazy.
4. People ignoring each other to find out what other people are doing.
This may the saddest thing that I see too often and it really gets to me. I see people in groups where they could be together, could be experiencing the moment, could be binding together in community, could be living life with someone in a very tangible way, but instead they are living in someone else's moment and becoming exponentially less content with their lives and exponentially more lonely all while being surrounded by the people they chose to be with, but are completely ignoring them. This really gets to me when I see a couple on a date who spend an hour of time and a lot of money to go out with each other only to spend the time away from each other.
5. Wikipedia
Wikipedia, is the free online encyclopedia. It is the brainchild of a group of men who thought how awesome would it be if all the smartest people in the world could have a place where they could constantly add to and update informational facts about any variety of topics. They forgot that if anyone can contribute, then some of those people would not be the brightest crayons and that some of those people who would contribute would be people with far-too much time on their hands. What we get is a place that comes up as the first item of any search engine full of "facts" added to and updated by any brain who had the time to sign in, type a sentence, and press update. As a teacher, this drives me to the end of insanity. I've had students hand in reports full of facts like: "Peru is the largest county in Asia.", "Solar power was invented by Isaac Newton in 1945.", and "John, the fourth book of the Gospels, is an account written by Paul." All of these "facts" many more can be traced right back to the wonders of Wikipedia.
Well, thanks for reading and that's enough for now. What drives you crazy about technology? I hope it is not people who have blogs were they talk about stuff that you don't care about.
David
Boy! You ARE my kid! You are on a soapbox about the very same things that make me and Dad so angry! The GPS thing is over the top. People have no map reading skills, do not know north from south and just basics. I, too, am the only one to pull out my well worn Bible (Granny's) at Bible study, we see families who never say a word to each other at the table when they are out to eat and on their devices. It is maddening to me. I cannot believe it sometimes.
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