technology

i can well remember when we bought an atlas and highlighted the route we wanted to take... so i absolutely love waze and gps. not only does it do the job of cb radios in identifying speed traps, it can tell you traffic patterns, detour you around construction or a wreck, show you distance and time and gas stations and coffee shops and restaurants along the way.

do i like this technology? uh... yeah

i can remember when long distance phone calls cost by the minute; and if your loved ones lived out of city, not just out of state, you had to pay for even a short conversation. there were definite limitations to contact. letters and postcards were enjoyable, but never timely.

now, not only can i communicate through a text or email immediately, i can get on my computer or phone and actually see my beloveds. i can see a face which tells more than a voice. i can be shown dogs and cats and new shoes and new furniture and new apartments. who knew that johnny quest science fiction would come true?

instead of cell phones we had cb radio and the business speaker phones like my daddy had. you could talk to other people who had what you had, but no one else. perhaps you would be lucky enough to have a trucker pass you if you broke down on the highway, and they would contact someone to help you. but if not, you had a very long walk.

cell phones mean that your teenagers are always a phone call away. (it can't make them answer.) when my daughter was at a residential school, there was one phone on the dorm hall. how i wish we could have talked to her on the phone. there were times i'm sure when she needed me when i could not be reached. any parent of a college student before cell phones can identify.

internet has changed my life. it is like having a library at the tip of my fingers. i can ask a question and almost immediately satisfy my curiosity. i can look up an unknown word and find not only its meaning and synonyms, but also how to pronounce it.

i love dr. google.

i love my kindle. it's like a library in the size of one book. i used to travel with a bag full of books and i always ran out. if i had to take them in a suitcase, i was really out of luck. now i can take a hundred books in a pocketbook.

camera phones was an idea that seemed totally bizarre to me. but these photos will be the primary sources of future historians. as events unfold, there will be photos taken and shared immediately. like all primary sources, they will have personal perspectives, but taken together they will provide much more accurate information than one or more bystander's memory or one news reporter who arrives well after the fact.

social media has provided an outlet for sharing pictures, music, ideas, news and so much more. you can keep contact with friends from an earlier time and even make acquaintances with new people who share your interests. many marriages and long time commitments have come from internet dating sites.

so technology has given and still gives us much good in our lives.

but technology, by definition, is a tool.

kindles and internet may reduce the number of people who go to and support public libraries, perhaps the greatest public institution ever conceived.

libraries have adapted to provide more media services which is wonderful, but there is much to be said for sitting in a comfy chair and reading a book or magazine. children seated in a circle listening to a story is beneficial in so many ways. a warm (or cool) quiet place to write and think is one of the greatest gifts of a library.

i do not want this lost to technology.

cell phones that can be used in emergencies can cause emergencies when their use while driving causes a wreck.

cell phones can be used to take pictures that invade someone's privacy.

social media can be a rich feeding ground for predators and for bullying.

information on the internet is often false and can spread lies quickly.

technology is a tool, like a power drill or a gun or a stove or a cash register. none of these things are good or bad in and of themselves. they are instruments to be used for a purpose. a knife that is used to prepare a meal can take someone's life.

technology requires learning new skills, but it also requires setting moral parameters.

any tool can be used for good or evil. a tool is not a good or bad. technology is not good or bad.

it is the way it is used.

it's just a tool.