Technology

In many ways, I live a very connected life (connected to a screen or the internet).

I have an iPhone, that I can't live without.  Like most people (I think), my phone is my alarm clock, calendar, weather reporter, mailbox, TV, music player, e-reader, notepad, source of news and entertainment.  I worry for the day in the future when I give the girls phones.  Of course, there will be flying cars by then and we'll all communicate via implants, so phones will obsolete and I won't have to worry about it.

I have 2 laptops.  One for work and one for personal use.  If it weren't for technology, I would not be able to perform the job that I have today.  Working from home using web-based databases and the like, I have to be very, very grateful for technology.

I email.  At my job, email is the preferred form of communication for most.  So it is challenging to actually work on those web-based databases and perform my actual job function when I'm also managing the CONSTANT flow of email.

I text a little bit.  With one finger. The microphone feature on the phone helps a lot.

Here are ways that I'm not so connected:

I don't use a tablet (i-Pad, etc.)
I don't use Facebook.  I had an account once, but deleted it.
I have a Twitter account but I don't post anything.
I don't video chat.
I don't have cable TV.  This means I don't have access to live news channels.
I don't browse YouTube.
I don't read news websites.
     So basically this means I live in a bubble and I rely on my few friends and family to tell me if anything important has happened.  I think they know this by now so they very helpfully will tell me if a celebrity has died, which I can usually figure out for myself based on my Twitter feed.  But, I didn't know sno-poc was coming until Mike came home from the clinic early on Thursday afternoon, explaining that everyone got sent home so we wouldn't have Atlanta-style gridlock in the snow.  I had no idea what he was talking about.

After the snow started I got an email from our local department/grocery store, Fred Meyer.  Snowpocalypse is coming! Stock up now!  I would have appreciated that email a few hours earlier.  By the time I got it, it was already too late.  On the other hand, we didn't need anything thanks to my previous mad stocking up skillz, so no harm done.

Mike used our 4x4 to drive the girls to day care Friday.  They were the only ones there.  Tasha seemed to think we were nuts.  But that's the thing with technology.  Sno-poc or not, I still have to work.  Whatever celebrity died, I still have to work.  There's some sort of global tragedy?  Hm, do I still have to work?  I do?  Oh, then I really don't have a lot of time to spend reading about it, do I?

Mike tells me that women in my age bracket are the least involved in politics.  Of course not, I tell him.  It's not that we don't care about politics.  It's more like:
oh, someone did something stupid and there's some idiot legislation out there?  ...
...
Do I still have to work? 
...
Do I still have to get my kids to day care SO I CAN WORK??
...
Do I still have to WORK TO GET FOOD ON THE TABLE?
...
Do I still have to care for growing children?
...
...


The kids were watching Babar the other day and I saw a scene where this exact concept is played out.
All the elephants are staring at the night sky and philosophizing about the possibility of other life in the universe.  So they're all blah blah blah pontificating when mom Celeste speaks up and says, "Well, I don't know what I believe, but I do know it's getting late!" and proceeds to put the kids to bed.

yep.