I was a teenager in the 80’s. I’ve watched a major change in technology throughout my lifetime. When I was younger and the television would get a bit frazzled, my dad would tell me to ‘bop’ the TV, meaning as I walked by, he wanted me to hit the side of it with my hand to correct screen quality. We had four channels available. Now, there are so many channels available through cable or satellite you can’t watch them all. TVs definition is clearer than the natural eye. Currently, at my house, we don’t have cable or satellite television; we stream everything through the computer, although I’m not so sure this personal choice of viewing can’t be counter-productive. Back in the early 80’s, I was tethered to the telephone with a short cord, holding me to one spot until my mother purchased a mile-long cord in the kitchen, whereas I could stretch it until I reached the other side of the room, kneel down and talk privately. My brother and I thought we were top dogs when my parents installed a private phone line with our own extensions located in our bedrooms. We were high on the hog.
Now you can call anyone from anywhere in the world, thanks to these cellular devices fitting inside a pocket, and anyone can call anywhere across the globe via computer or phone, and talk face to face in real time. I recall wishing this were possible when I was a child. However, it counteracts productivity with the preoccupation of Candy Crush Saga and Facebook at one’s fingertips.
When I began my writing career at 16 years-old on a Selectric typewriter, I was astonished at how quickly ball hit the paper and loved the humming sound as I typed. As technology advanced, I learned to operate my first computer with DOS operating system. I was educated on Word Perfect software and was spread sheet savvy with Lotus 123 in 1988. I was high tech and with it when I drove around with a car bag phone at 20 years-old. Today, I write stories on a laptop, and I can handwrite notes on my phone and tablet with a stylus. My phone has as powerful of an operating system as my laptop, which to me is incredible. Plus, today there are nifty smart watches available to keep us connected to all social media, text messages, email, phone calls, voice memo, can track heart rate, has a pedometer, exercise time and controls music on a phone from about 100 feet away. It has a camera so we can feel like Dick Tracy and be super sneaky and whisper secrets to our wrist.
Technology today gives type 1 diabetics like me freedom to live an exciting life. This means today I can wear a waterproof insulin pump with wireless programming. I can perform a scientific lab test from anywhere, doing anything—meaning I can check my blood sugar in less than 4 seconds—whenever and whatever. I also have a continuous glucose monitor I also wear which gives me real time information of a generality of what my blood sugar is ranging, with a diagram on a small screen. Diabetics of yesteryear could only imagine what we can do now. If anyone needs a new kidney, find a donor and it’s possible to continue life, whereas this wasn’t possible for our grandparents. Technology has come a long, long way. We have more information at our fingertips now than any other time in history. My question is this: are we more productive and efficient? Are we more informed? If we are, what is the product we produce with these amazing niceties? Living in these extraordinary times we can do less with more, but at what cost?
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Technology upgrades