OK. I’m old-fashioned.
Stuck in the past. Not one to take up new things until I know they’re really better than what they’re replacing.
I’ll attempt an explanation – with some examples.
Telephone service.
Where’s Ma Bell’s simple bill when we need it? Have you a clue regarding the costs of your phone “service?” Remember one-page phone bills? Now they come in chapters. Long, confusing chapters.
This is better?
If pressed, I’ll spot you (some of) the technical advances we’ve made.
Digital cameras are great. I have a friend who swears by them. Never again will we ruin a roll of film by accidentally opening the back of the camera.
Flush toilets and running water beat outhouses and hauling water from a well all to hell and gone.
My wife’s just had her fourth hip replacement. Without them, she would’ve had to give up walking about 12 years ago.
Antibiotics and other medical advances have gotten us to where our allotted time on Earth is closing in on four score and then some.
But I’d say the jury is still out on Viagra, Cialis and the like. Check out some of the possible side effects of being able to fling that old football through the tire over and over again at a certain age. As for all of the other pills being pushed, since when was life meant to be one smooth experience?
Stuck in the past?
Guilty as charged, because there are other things that don’t seem to be improvements. Things that are changing how we behave as people.
The screen I’m looking at right now is an example.
I’m writing on it (so to speak) and, when I’m done, I’ll send this column off having corrected it without ever balling up a single piece of paper.
We’ll put that down as good.
But do you know anyone who’ll sit in front of one of these screens racing virtual cars? Flying virtual planes? Killing virtual demons? For hours on end. Without ever talking to another human being.
We once played games across a board and laughed and talked and drank with the folks we were playing with. Got to know them. Became even better friends.
Ever offer a computer screen a beer? Flung one at it maybe, but that’s not the same.
How many people do you see walking around with headphones attached – ignoring everyone around them?
How many people do you know whose only contact with others at work is via e-mail?
Used to be you knew Betty or Joe down in shipping. If you had a problem, you went down and talked with them. Maybe even joked around a bit. Then, the problem got solved and life went on.
Now you send an e-mail and everything goes sour because you can’t see the other person’s face and things get misunderstood.
Ever call another company and find yourself praying for an actual human being to pick up the phone? One who knows the company cold and can tell you whom you need to talk to.
How many times have your prayers been crushed by some generic voice that routes you through menu selection hell where none of the choices actually help you?
Have you seen the unmanned scanners at checkout stands in food stores?
Let ‘em rot.
When did it become a bad thing to talk to the checker you’ve known for years? When did it become inefficient to talk about families, the weather, and how glad we are that the week is nearly over?
Try showing a scanner the latest pictures of your kids. Let me know about the warmth of its response.
I hear that you can get a college degree online. No football games. No all night bull sessions.
Day by day, we’re losing more and more contact with each other.
And it’s being sold to us as a way to free up more time.
More time to sit in front of a screen for hours at a time.
Alone.
And they call it progress.
Yep. That’s my picture next to the definition of “old fashioned” in the dictionary.
I’m proud of it, too.
Larry Simoneaux is a freelance writer living in Edmonds. Comments can be sent to larrysim@att.net.
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