SMARTECHNOLOGY

I should begin by saying I have a healthy love-hate relationship with technology. I work on a computer in an office for eight hours a day for a paycheck every other week. The last thing I want to do after work is sit in front of another computer. I am a minimalist at Facebook and checking my email is almost as stressful as checking my rickety mailbox downstairs. Both of them often have countless pieces of information that I will never use and sometimes notifications of bills are just as stressful as the amounts I have to pay. I am a writer and have been since the age of 12, so the pen and the paper were my first two loves (I am a true Gemini). Writing my thoughts into cyberspace is not unnatural- it’s just not my first choice as a medium. So blogging is a new thing to me (that I love) and it has caused me to think before I speak, read as carefully as possible before I act and grow from the writings of others. Growing pains hurt, but there is usually a reward for loving and consequences for hating that we learn from (hopefully).

I just have moments where technological living goes beyond being a tool and infringes on our intellect. So the idea of a car parking its self is not appealing. It’s scary! How do I learn to Parallel Park if the car is doing it for me? I have to learn what I personally believe men master better than women-spatial awareness. I have no interest in seeing my pictures on my TV; I just don’t see the point! Why did I bother to load the pictures onto my computer, into my Facebook or MySpace page just to turn away from my TCM Channel to a picture of myself a few feet away? I love my pictures but when you incorporate technology, it creeps me out a bit.

I also feel like we allow technology to take us away from basic information that we provide to one another. Perfect example: A recent trip to a Discount store (that will remain nameless) carried the wrong size product inside of one of its packages. I thought the store hours would be on the receipt. Wrong. The place that would normally hold that information replaced it with advising the consumer to check out their Facebook page. Sad - just need the store hours. A phone call placed to the phone number provided asked for the consumer to do two things: Leave a message and check out their Facebook page. Ok, ok this is stupid. Some people, believe it or not, do not have internet access in their homes. Inconvenience to them? How inconvenient was it for “Nameless” to take the store hours off of the receipt? Basic information is missing in action. Its new home address: cyberspace.

I know I don’t have to mention how technology has affected the dating scene, but I would like to share two things. One is, I DO NOT LIKE TEXT! It is not effective for business or love relations. A text will not transmit your heart’s desires quite like the tone of your voice, the look in your eyes, or the chemistry that our brains share when we are together. Neither will a “sext” (which I have been guilty of sending). I recently received one and I have to say, an uninvited sexual innuendo is rarely well received from me.

The second thing I wish to share is a short story. I recently bumped into a childhood friend of mine. We have always been friends-nothing more. Whenever we see one another in Brooklyn, we always ask about family members or share an experience from a cultural event recently attended. In the past six years I’ve seen him, we never exchanged information. I was good at just seeing a friendly, familiar face from Far Rockaway (say that three times fast). So one lazy Friday after work I see “F-Bomb”- his name for the sake of my story-and F-Bomb and I have a great conversation about an event we both missed, but about writers we marvel about. I even share one of my beloved Stella Artois with this cat. We make the exchange of digits and e-mail and I think “wow, progress, right?” Wrong. He calls me at midnight which is poor judgment but I give him a pass out of Rockaway love. Yet, I do that for friends and potentials of which this dude falls into the former category. We have an average conversation but I can tell he’s fishing but with no bait. We hang up and then he texts me inviting himself over later. STRIKE THREE FOR ME! He doesn’t know how I feel about texts but HUH? I especially hate when a man initially reaches out to me via text. The time it took your manly fingers to text what you said, you could have spent that energy finding K-I-S-H-A in your phone and having the real thing. So to me, it’s a step away from a real conversation. But a text after midnight? What are you saying to me? CALL ME is my response. I told him we can meet at a lovely coffee shop around the way (Liquid Oz on Malcolm X). Needless to say he still hasn’t called me back. Even good guys with good grooming and a good job have their moments of whackness. Here I thought I had a new-found friendship forming and it turned out to be an annoyance. I can understand if a man is shy, but texting will not help you deal with your lack of game/rap/pick-up technique. I am not practice- I am the real thing, not a button on your phone to play with.

From the Immigration Office to change of address with the Post office, our services are wildly moving to cyberspace as their new place of business that we must travel to for services. I understand it serves as a tool to speak to a global community in seconds what would have taken days, months, etc. I get it. But there has to be some sort of responsibility to the necessary information we need. Human relationships take time and sensitivity to others that technology slowly robs mankind of. I am learning to navigate the waters of my disdain and joy from this everyday tool…