Technology codependency

I got an iPod recently. It was a gift, actually, or more precisely, an award given to everyone in my "group" at work in recognition for outstanding performance in 2006. I've actually had it almost 3 months now, but I had been too busy participating in life, and futilely pursuing the ever-elusive snipe called "work/life balance". Last week, though, was different. I was "out of town" on business, and due to the cost of flights, I had to arrive at the conference a day early. So, I enjoyed myself in this other town, and then found that I had some time on my hands. What to do, what to do?

So I pulled out this package with this little tiny piece of technology, and I find a credit-card size quick-start guide. No software, just the device, the quick-start guide, the earbuds, and the "dock". I have since learned that what I received was a 1 GB 2nd Generation iPod Shuffle. So, I went to the itunes website, and I downloaded and installed itunes, and signed up for an account. And within a few minutes, I had downloaded about 35 songs.

OK, OK, I know I am a late-comer to the 'pod phenomenon. I do have another mp3 player, but I did not use it with a download service. And it didn't clip to my shirt and weigh nothing. I am actually something of a technophile, or in the vernacular, a gearhead. I am not necessarily bleeding edge, but I generally the Jones's are trying to keep up with me. I am that "go to" person for everything technical or computer-related for my friends and family. Buying a new computer? Buying a new digital camera? Questions on how to set up your email? Questions how to configure your wireless network? Problems with software package XYZ? Trouble hooking up your DVR? Fill in the blank, I'm that person.

OK, dad, do you see a bar across the top of your screen that has a line of words on it? Good. You see the word "File" on that line? OK, that's your menu bar. Now, click once on the word "File." No, you don't need to double click. Yes, that's right. Now, do you see that a menu has popped out from under the word file? Good. Do you see wher it says Exit, at the bottom? Yes, click once on the word Exit. No, EXIT. What, your email went away? Then you did it right. That's what we were trying to accomplish.

So my point is, I am no technological neophyte. I'm not a cynic, and I embrace new technologies that fill a need in my life. I just never new I had a need to have my own personal, portable, radio station. So, I've totally fallen in love with this thing called iPod. Who knew how great it was to eat breakfast, or write emails, or create reports, or review documentation, with your own private unicast, designed for you, and by you, and only playing songs you like. Yeah, I am old enough that I made mix tapes, and later, mix CDs. But this is orders of magnitude easier and faster. Anyone can be a DJ.

So I found myself, walking around this city in which I was staying, in my own little bubble. Now, I should also tell you that I am a safety minded person. I always make sure my car radio is low enough to allow me to hear audio cues to which I need to respond, like emergency vehicles, squealing brakes, or sounds of breaking glass and crashing steel; I completely understand the importance of the concept of situational awareness, which is even more important when travelling alone, by foot, in a strange city, than it is while driving a car. I am also wary of loud music played on personal music devices through headphones, and am old enough to think that if I can hear the music from your earbuds when I am 5 feet away well enough to recognize the song, the music is too loud.

So, I have my earbuds in, and I am listening to my music, but I am still aware of my surroundings. I can still hear when someone talks to me, and I can still respond. I make eye contact with those around me. And I turn off the iPod and remove my earbuds when the situation calls for more than a passing "hello" or "thank you". I also continue to scan the area around me, to ensure that I do not become an easy mark for those on the lookout for those of us completely insulated from the outside world, with a false sense of safety inside our bubbles.

Still, I love the intimacy of having a singer sing directly in my ear, where I can hear their breath. It's a very comforting, satisfying feeling. And being able to take that with me (just about) everywhere is incredibly liberating. From a practical perspective, when trying to work in a noisy coffeehouse or other public place, hearing my own familiar music allows me to focus better, without the sights and sounds of the coffee shop constantly distracting me.

But then I think about, at that moment, how many machines, how much technology, I am depending on. OK, so at that moment, there's the iPod, my laptop, the wireless router in the coffeeshop and all the servers and routers between me and my work, the electrical generating equipment at the electric plant, the air handling systems in the building, the lighting systems...not to mention everything that went in to getting me to that coffeehouse. Planes, tranes, and automobiles. Refineries. Electronic looms that wove the cloth for my clothing, sewing machines that sewed the clothes......It's mind boggling. and that's just to get me to where I am, clothed, and plugged in to the wall. Our lives are more and more dependent on more and more advanced technology, and the easier we want things, the smaller and more advanced every piece of technology becomes. But with a price.

For instance, there is very little place for yesteryear's "shade-tree mechanic" in the 21st century. Cars are very complex now, and their engine compartments are so tightly packed that specialized equipment and tools are needed for even the simplest act of maintenance, the oil change. Yes, I, in my youth, changed the oil in my 1979 Chevy Impala. Not so in my vehicle of today. Even checking the air pressure in tires has gone high-tech; my aunt gave me a digital tire pressure gauge for Christmas last year.

There are many great things that come of this constant forward march of technology. Miniaturization has allowed the creation of a portable insulin pump that's the size of a pager, and worn on the belt; this is a great boon to those with diabetes, and frees them to lead lives of less encumbrance. Miniaturization has enabled car manufacturers to distribute "smart" keys, with door lock controls build right into the key, and ID chips embedded in keys to allow the car "authenticate" the key before starting. These are truly safety and security measures; I can find my car easily in a parking lot, quickly lock and unlock doors, and make my car be my personal alarm with a panic button on my key in case I find myself under threat. And miniaturization has enabled me to immerse myself in my own bubble, with my iPod, which is smaller than a book of matches.

But do we depend too much on technology? Do we put enough attention on learning to do without? I mean, what on earth is there to do when the power is off? Most of this technology is dependent in some way on electricity. Computers, televisions, telephones, cell phones, gameboys, ipods, cars, light bulbs, radios, flashlights, fans and air conditioners. Just watch kids on a plane between leaving the gate and reaching an altitude of 10,000 feet; you would think they had been banished to purgatory, having to turn off mr ipod and ms gameboy for 15 minutes. Books, cards, and boardgames? Apparently those went the way of the T-Rex, but they are not nearly so interesting.....

Studies have continually shown that despite the availability and effectiveness of "labor saving devices", we have no more freetime today than we did 50 or 60 years ago. That's quite a perspective. Where does that time go? Well, I'll ask you, how much time did YOU spend fighting with technology last week? Oh, complexity may not be the only thing sucking up your time, but doubtless it is in the top 5 time wasters in your life.

Technology offers some amazing benefits, but we should not embrace technology to the exclusion of everything else, and we should embrace it with eyes wide open. We must be mindful of the dangers, and the allure, of technical codependency, where people literally cannot function without their technology, where technology becomes an enabler in the truest sense. We must remember that sometimes the best solution is a low-tech or no-tech solution.

My company "encourages" its employees to find work/life balance. I contend that we all need to work to find technology/life balance, or we may find that the life experiences we have worked so hard to preserve have become a distant memory, usurped by the infinitely cleaner and safer virtual version.

Imagine sky diving without the possibility of chute failure and death? Imagine visiting the Grand Canyon, but not having to deal with the dust and the heat and the threat of death if you go beyond a certain point without water? Imagine if all of our messy, dangerous, visceral experience were replaced by safe and sanitized virtual versions of themselves? Or if we could truly simulate people? Now, there's some virtual insanity.