As a web designer (by trade) and an early adopter of all things computer, I have a love-hate relationship with technology.
I see the delightful possibilities with technological advances. I was one of the first people to get a degree that included computer graphics (in my art major). The things computers can do is amazing.
And ProWritingAid? I’m so happy about having a pre-editor at my disposal. For books, I usually have an editor have a go at it, but I like to play a game where I try to see how many pages I can go without any corrections. ProWritingAid helps.
I have even more ambivalence about AI.
I find Claude to be a helpful colleague with which to bounce ideas or to troubleshoot code errors, and I’ve already written about using it to compile information to plan ahead, but am distressed by the large amounts of (pardon my French) CRAP being VOMITTED out by AI, soiling the internet in the name of content creation or “consistent social media posting.
As a content creator and Web professional, I want to grab people by the shirt collars, give them a little shake, and say, ” MY DUDE, generating 50 posts a month with AI is no longer you talking to your audience. Now your brand is diluted down to the same regurgitated slop as everyone else.”
Is it me, or are people getting dumber?
Without going into detail, I’m talking about people sending me “information” or even content for a design that still has the ChatGPT prompt in it. One of my kids, who is a teacher, says this is pretty common in academic papers these days too. Lord have mercy.
Sometimes I worry I’m turning into my grandfather. Am I getting to be a crabby old person? Maybe.
Technology as a Lifeline
Well, Kim, it sounds like you really hate technology. Nah.
There was a time when technology was a kind of lifeline during the lowest parts of my life.
When I was a new mom, life was hard. Friends split. Even church was lonely. I’m pretty sure a lot of this was me suffering from post partum depression while trying really hard to pretend like I wasn’t. Ahem.
But then I discovered the internet, in the mid 1990s. And I found a tribe, albeit far from me.
This too was both a good and bad situation. Good in that I didn’t feel quite as lonely. But bad in that anyone can post anything online, and it seems like the most hard-core fundamentalist crazies were the ones most active in the 1990s.
Yeah, I went down the rabbit hole of nuttiness.
Apologies to anyone who knew me then.
But apart from that negative, it was good to have forums and egroups and websites, and connection, even if it was via AOL.
Technology’s Encroachment
It might have been a few years ago now, around the time I was getting ready to move to Southwest Georgia, that I realized how much of my life had been encroached upon by technology.
I spend most of my days in front of my computer because I design websites and do an ever-increasing amount of work in technology and marketing. I’m thankful I can work from anywhere (Yay), but less thankful that I can be reached anywhere and any time (Boo).
The work of getting the old house ready to sell and packing up a lifetime of memories pulled me away from technology long enough to remind me of real life.
As I packed books, I realized it had been ages since I picked up a book and read for fun. I used to read in the tub.
Just this morning, sitting in a dentist office waiting room, someone was shocked to hear another woman in the waiting room had read 8 books this year, and it was only March. I’ve ready 14, but I don’t have a toddler as this woman does. Others in the waiting room said they hadn’t read a book in years, but they “read all the time online”, which I get.
I was one of the first people I know to get a smartphone.
Actually I didn’t start with a smartphone. I started with a Blackberry. God, I’m old.
I wrote one of my books on my Blackberry because I could.
I’ve been connected most of my life and spent far too many years looking at screens.
Return to Analog
This year, I have decided to get through my TBR pile, and read at least 50% of the books from book club.
I’ve been reading short stories and poems too. I find those make it less overwhelming, and I think it’s improved my attention span.
From around that time I was packing the house until now, I set a few simple boundaries:
- The computer goes off at 5pm unless there is an actual emergency.
- The computer stays off over the weekends unless there is an actual emergency.
- I avoid screens on the weekends and on the evenings.
Instead, I do stuff.
I walk.
I read.
I visit.
I paint.
I putter in my garden and around my house.
I find activities that suit my interests.
It’s easier to do that in a walkable town full of art and creativity. I don’t even want to turn my computer on in the mornings.
Over the last year, I’ve also painted more.
I always wanted to. I had a desire most of my life to be the kind of person who can set up an easel and paint wherever. I’ve achieved that goal. Not as well as I’d like to, but I’m making progress. Every Saturday, a group of us informally get together somewhere and paint. Backyards, parks, downtown, farms.
For New Years, we stood all day on the Jetty at St. Marks and painted the lighthouse. It was easily my favorite New Years day ever. Last Saturday, we did goat yoga and painted at a farm. There’s been painting during a sidewalk sale, a rattlesnake round up, and of course the Plein Air Paintout.
The next time I went to the eye doctor, my eyesight had improved slightly. And I feel better.
It’s amazing what analog living will do for you.
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