Ask me about the reproductive cycle of the earthworm and I’m your woman; engage me in conversation about obscure 1960s British psychedelia and my eyes will light up. But talk to me about technology and I want to run to the hills and hide in a treehouse where the only signals I can receive are from the birds and the butterflies… that’s ok, I speak their language. The other stuff, the bytes and the apps and the nano SIMS, just aren’t my bag.
And it’s hard to be like this, don’t you think? It’s an easy,
lazy excuse to say it’s just an age thing, as I don’t believe it is. My dad, for instance, has always been very technologically
minded; he keeps up-to-date and understands it all, no problem - he’s 93. But I never have been, I’m just not wired that
way. My brain seems to effortlessly absorb facts
about the mating rituals of snails and tells my hand how to draw (on paper) every day, but
goes into panic mode when faced with questions about synching data and sharing
app contents via NFC or whatever it is. Is it so wrong to feel like that, is it
so strange? I feel quite out of step thanks to the way my mind works much of the time. I can look out of a window for hours and not tire of it for one second, but with only a phone in
front of me to scroll through I would be bored in no time. I honestly don’t know how people manage it.
As a result, I’m an
avoider, and hence instead of doing things incrementally I’m now having to make (what feels like) a massive
leap from a 9 year old phone which started playing up last week to something
far more sophisticated than I deserve. I
got butterflies thinking about it, I could feel the stress levels rise, a sense
of resistance – it’s ridiculous, I know.
There’s only one thing for it - I
must find a way to make it exciting…
To paraphrase Maya Angelou, "... if you can't change it, change your attitude". I’m getting there. It's shiny! It’s a gorgeous, sumptuous shade of red! I mean, yes, it is aesthetically pleasing, I must admit. And… it performs magic! Ooh, plus I’ve bought a snappy leather case for it too. Whoo hoo! All I have to do (when my network upgrade finally gets activated…therein lies another tale) is to switch it on. And just hope that somehow, in some small way, it will switch me on too.
Here's 'Reality Poem', with its line that I borrowed for the title of this post, by Linton Kwesi Johnson, from the superb 'Forces of Victory' album which, quite shockingly, is now 43 years old.
As Paul Simon once sang, "These are the days of miracle and wonder..."
ReplyDeleteAnd as Arthur Cl. Clarke once wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Indeed - I'm starting to think that magic is merely down to perception. As well as a new phone I've got some new specs on order and it started me thinking about how the first people to try on some form of vision aid must have also felt it was a form of magic when they could suddenly see clearly again. I'm thinking of Catweazle now... ah, electrickery and the telling bone.
DeleteYes, world peace and all that, but my secret wish is to return to an analog world. I don't want to be a wet blanket, but that's me all over. You will receive more joy at that window than you ever will using Windows.
ReplyDeleteThat last sentence is profound Brian.
DeleteBrian, so reassuring to find I'm in good company. The idea of returning to an analog world - where we're all at the same speed, i.e. several paces slower - sounds good to me too. I love that I can do some things so much more efficiently thanks to technology but there's always a price to pay for it. Absolutely agree with your lovely last sentence too.
DeleteThere's a Douglas Adams quote that usually comes to mind when I'm unsuccessfully grappling with some piece of technology or other, though it clearly doesn't apply to your Dad!:
ReplyDelete“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”
That Douglas Adams quote got me thinking and sums it up nicely! My dad is perhaps unusual in his embrace of technology but comes from that background - electronic engineering and research - so I think he just has that kind of brain. I never understood what he did even when he was younger, I just used to love that he brought home reams of used computer paper for me to draw on!
DeleteBut for the rest of us - I often just think it's not so much about "how?" but about "why?" That probably indicates my age straight away!
It is a major challenge for me to log in and enter my occasional and inane comments on the continuing work of art that this blog has become. It tells you much about what you should know of me.
ReplyDeleteYour comments are always welcome (and not inane), Ben, so thank you for rising to the difficult technological challenges involved!
DeleteBring back the telegram. Stop.
ReplyDeleteAlso the carrier pigeon - a pet and a messaging service all in one.
DeleteI'm loving the comments on this post - some great quotes amongst them.
ReplyDeleteI love what technology can do for us (I would never have 'met' you otherwise!) but once I've cracked something I hate having to deal with any upgrade or change as it invariably goes wrong (crossing fingers for you). I'm still having to leave comments as Anonymous on most of the blogspot blogs since the last change, as haven't been able to fix that yet.
But yes, some people like your dad take it in their stride - just the way we're wired (no pun intended) I suppose. I'm definitely with Brian re the window though. Keep on enjoying it.
it or deal with
Sorry a few stray words got left in the bottom there after an edit - think it was part of a sentence about dealing with the consequences etc. My point exactly though - I love the technology, but I make a mess of using it sometimes!
DeleteYes, some great quotes - Brian's should be immortalised! Indeed, you're right, so much to thank it all for and not least what we have here - I've just been so frustrated this week by the hoops I've had to jump through only to get nowhere (the service side of things with my account) that it's got me all wound up! My 'wiring' is so different to my Dad's, god knows what happened there, the system must have crashed when I was born.
ReplyDeleteBut - having said all that - today I set up my new phone and it is, of course, very lovely and clever and I'm liking it very much so far...
Fortunately you're not coming up as Anonymous, so something is working!
And as further proof, that comment above was meant to be a direct reply to yours, not a separate comment...
DeleteThe Douglas Adams quote sums me up perfectly! Having a teen daughter feels like a constant reminder of my increasing decrepitude as she seems to have had an intuitive grasp of technology since birth and I find myself grappling even with the basics of Blogger far too often!
ReplyDeleteBrian's quote resonated with your wonderfully expressed feelings about updating your phone. I think of going to gigs and other live performances, museums, family outings, you name it, and seeing people experience the whole thing through their phones whilst recording.
There's a really weird sense that, in order to capture a special moment for posterity, they've missed what's actually making it special in the first place, that is, living and being in the moment. It may explain why I've got appallingly few photos and hardly any videos of my own!
Excellent choice of music/poetry, by the way. I was introduced to LKJ in the mid-1980s by my English Lit teacher and never looked back.
DeleteHi Khayem, yes, the more I think about that Douglas Adams quote the more I identify with it. And I dread to think how I'll feel in another ten or twenty years' time, unless by some strange change society decides it's time for us all to flip back to simpler times (in which case I'll gladly get out my fountain pen). Nah, not gonna happen!
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with the whole thing about fully experiencing the moment without it being through the eye of a lens. I also worry that for some the motive behind having some experiences is more for showing the evidence to other people than for just the hell of it. As a result, like you, I don't have many videos or photos of the best things I've ever seen or done... too busy seeing and doing!
Glad you like the choice of LKJ, first heard on Peel, a session I think, but I love the fact that you were introduced to him by your English Lit teacher, that's a lovely reference. Funnily enough, I hadn't thought about or heard him or the album for ages until putting this post together, then a day or two later I put the radio on (6 Music) and what was playing but 'Sonny's Lettah'?!