Take Backs?

I realize from re-reading my previous post regarding technical support personnel, that my words may make some rise to the defense - those same folks that my livelihood dependeth upon and with whom I have shared many a moment of cliff-hanging, finger crossing tech disaster/recovery moments.

I may have, to the more astute reader, committed the cardinal sin of not taking a moment before writing what's on my mind. As is true with the modern day electronic written word, you, the reader, are not privvy to my state of mind or the context within which I wrote...without putting facial expression together with written "speech", an important element is left out - the ability of the reader to discern the context in which something is written.

How many of us have fired off an email or a text, only to have it misinterpreted? Effective writing is not a natural gift to most of us, it needs to be cultivated and polished. In the arena of instanteneous communication, there are no "take backs", and moreover, once published, it's likely to float around cyberspace forever. A daunting thought.

That being said (rather, typed), I return to the point of this blog: "How Technology Has Impacted Me" or, how it affects my daily life and that of those around me.

My current thinking, (this being a Wednesday night, alone in New York City, tired from the final two weeks of school, had a cookie for dinner, witnessed a Thesis Defense meeting that left me thinking I'll never graduate from this place, etc. - this information given to you, dear reader, so you may establish a frame of reference for my frame of mind) is this:

Technology has made me available to all sorts of people at all times. My cell phone is in my pocket always - therefore I am reachable no matter where I am. No longer do I come home in the evening and settle in and retrieve my phone messages from the day; they chirp at me from the pocket of my coat in class, walking down a street, driving in a car. I grew up in the era, that a phone call meant something generally important, and answering the person as soon as possible the norm. It has taken some time to realize how to ignore a ringing phone.

If I'm not reachable by phone, email reaches me. I have become somewhat of an email addict, since its important is slowly replacing communication by phone. All school work is submitted by email; my status in terms of my grades, my schedule, my current bills, is all done electronically. This has become the status quo for me.

I am slowly learning to turn off the technology when I feel it is more of an interruption than a necessity. There are times I do not want to be available. Many of my classmates (I will make a stretch here and give the guarded opinion that the following is more true of the younger students) cannot seem to switch off. My classes that include a majority of undergrads are constantly filled with the sounds of texting, IMing and browsing the internet during class; constant chatter on touch-screen keypads.

I would initially have said we need to teach our kids when to shut down; to turn off the electronics during class times, during conversations with people, during concerts and lectures. From the viewpoint of concentration, not to mention etiquette, I still feel this is the case. But is it a case of my getting older?

JD