Friday, July 29, 2005
Ruminations on computing
Do you suppose it's even possible to calculate how much more complicated life is now that we have computers in our everyday lives? I think about how many hours I log on the computer each week at home and at work and how many things I have to know to be able to do the things I do. Think about all the details involved in photo editing, printing, uploading, and sharing. Or creating a Word document and editing it. Or sending an email. Or designing a website. Or running Excel. How many menu items are you familiar with? How many procedures are in your head? How many new terms are you using that didn't even exist twenty years ago? If you sit and think about it you'll realize it's pretty mind-boggling.

B.C. (Before Computers) I can tell you that I did a lot more with my hands. Creative projects. Cross-stitch, drawing, and calendar-making (like they do with scrapbooking now). I can still be very creative on the computer, it's just that the product isn't so lasting now. (On the other hand it doesn't clutter up my house either!)

I'm not anti-computer by any means. I love having information on just about anything you can imagine just a few mouse-clicks away. I love being able to forge relationships with people I realize I may never meet. I love being able to communicate with far-flung family with relative ease. I'm such a computer lover that I'm known as a geek and a booster. But honestly, sometimes my head could burst with all the computer minutiae crammed in there.