Controlling technology

Technology is a fantastic tool. The demographics of the people in my life has determined what I use technology wise. Honestly, the greatest amount of people I interact with in my world are under the age of 40. A lot are under 30. At work, everyone is under 25. 

I learned to text, because it is how my sons and their wives communicate.

I was an early adapter of Facebook, because that is where people were communicating.
How much time does it take from real life?

I am trying to remember what year we got our first computer. It was early enough that a dot matrix printer was hot. What I do remember is that in the beginning I spent about 6 hours one day, playing Solitaire. I realized then that I didn't want to be caught in that web. So, I won't play games. I have never played Angry Birds or even Candy Crush. I don't have time.

Cynthia Wilcox shared about our technology challenge: “So Friday night, I was ready to take the 24 hour technology challenge. I got up Saturday morning and my children's father texted me that my son's student profile had been updated. He sent me a link via e-mail. That was important because he has a project due. BEFORE NOON I used my PHONE for the following purposes: an alarm clock, a calculator, checked email, sent a document to my printer, checked my son's student profile, checked my student profile, a camera, checked my online study group for updates, sent photos to Walgreens photo center for a class project, Facebook, recipe lookup for a friend (emailed her the link) texted my study group, watched a YouTube video about the pharmaceutical effects of diuretics on the heart, texted a study mate about an assignment, paid a bill online and finally a phone to talk to my mom and Jeremy's mom. BEFORE NOON! and I had class from 9am to 11:30.

Reflection? I really rely on my phone for day to day life. I never leave without it. It's always charged. I have other things I longed to do, like crochet, read, study out of a book....nap. Unfortunately that was just my phone. I used a bunch of other technology as well. If I'm going to go dark, I need to do it on break from school. I think I would find it very peaceful. So I didn't do very well at the challenge, but I realize life will be a lot slower if I don't have my technology any longer.”

I really appreciate her honesty. I think the biggest lesson I learned (knew); is that we should control technology, not allow it to control us. But for me, I admit the internet & t.v. is a “time suck”.
I am working towards putting technology back in it's place in my life.

Then the biggie, what would we do if technology ceased? Are all your family photos on your phone or in your computer, or still on a disc in your camera? Are all your phone numbers in your cell phone? Are all our addresses in your GPS? Is all your information in your computer? How would it change our life?

Are you controlling technology?