Staring at the Screen
This afternoon my daughter is going to pick up her new phone. I'm sure many teenagers out there have already picked up at least five smartphones since they've first had a phone. And I bet almost every time, after a month they complain that their phone is getting old. Not my daughter. I had to fight with my daughter to change phones. This will be her third phone since she was fifteen. And only because the first was stolen.
She has a Nokia that looks like a Blackberry, with all the buttons. The screen is a tiny, normal screen. She has dropped it at least five hundred times and it has the scrape marks to show for it. But it still works. She finds it enough for her needs. But now it's showing problems. Messages aren't reaching her on the messaging network she and her friends use. She has to keep turning it off and on sometimes just to be able to write a text. It's now showing a tempramentality that would make a saint swear. And she's no saint. So she has now doubled under and tearfully accepted to change it for a smartphone. Because that was another problem. She hates smartphones and new technology. She wanted another phone with buttons, but the only ones with buttons don't connect to internet and she wouldn't be able to download the messaging app she uses. She doesn't like touchscreens. She says they're unpredictable and awkward. But now she has no choice. Technology has moved on.
I, on the other hand, like new technology. Sometimes I'll stop and look at new computers, touching the keyboard of the one on display. Tablets also seduce me in the electronics section of the department store we sometimes visit in Santiago. But, whereas if I were a teenager I would be pleading for a new phone with all the new stuff, I understand now what I need. And I don't need the absolute latest technology or even the appurtenances that contain it. I have a good phone, yes. But since I'm paying for it over two years, I chose the best one I could comfortably pay for so it wouldn't be obsolete at the end of that time. I have a desktop computer that will soon run out of memory space, but when that happens I'll simply see about a new hard disk memory, not an entire new computer. I don't have a laptop; my daughter does, but because she needs it away from home during the school year. I have no kind of tablet, i or otherwise. I don't need it. Though if someone were kind enough to make me a present of it and take care of the internet connection every month, I wouldn't reject it! I think the most advanced piece of electronics I have in my house is my phone. And that's enough.
I have learned to stop and think if I need something. And do we really need all the new technology that has appeared in recent years? I can understand that professionals who sometimes work from places other than their office have laptops and tablets. I can understand someone who works in certain jobs who needs the latest technology. I can't understand a family of three who might have two desktop computers, four laptops, three tablets, and their own smartphones. And an interactive television that connects to internet and can do almost everything a desktop can. Yet, that seems to be what so many families who can afford it, aspire to. I know an eleven year old girl who has a smartphone, two tablets and free use of her mother's laptop. As well as the desktop they have at home. What happened to dolls, books, jump ropes, and games of tag? There's another eleven year old boy who plays soccer in a kid's team. But that's all he plays. Because at home he only plays with his tablet. He doesn't play any physical games at home except sometimes kicking the ball with a young nephew. His stomach is starting to look like the round ball he kicks.
The whole world has become interconnected and we need to be somewhere in there ourselves. But we don't need to be connected all the time nor everywhere nor with the latest microchips. I'm glad my daughter has always realized that, but I wish she would realize sometimes a small change is good.
She has a Nokia that looks like a Blackberry, with all the buttons. The screen is a tiny, normal screen. She has dropped it at least five hundred times and it has the scrape marks to show for it. But it still works. She finds it enough for her needs. But now it's showing problems. Messages aren't reaching her on the messaging network she and her friends use. She has to keep turning it off and on sometimes just to be able to write a text. It's now showing a tempramentality that would make a saint swear. And she's no saint. So she has now doubled under and tearfully accepted to change it for a smartphone. Because that was another problem. She hates smartphones and new technology. She wanted another phone with buttons, but the only ones with buttons don't connect to internet and she wouldn't be able to download the messaging app she uses. She doesn't like touchscreens. She says they're unpredictable and awkward. But now she has no choice. Technology has moved on.
I, on the other hand, like new technology. Sometimes I'll stop and look at new computers, touching the keyboard of the one on display. Tablets also seduce me in the electronics section of the department store we sometimes visit in Santiago. But, whereas if I were a teenager I would be pleading for a new phone with all the new stuff, I understand now what I need. And I don't need the absolute latest technology or even the appurtenances that contain it. I have a good phone, yes. But since I'm paying for it over two years, I chose the best one I could comfortably pay for so it wouldn't be obsolete at the end of that time. I have a desktop computer that will soon run out of memory space, but when that happens I'll simply see about a new hard disk memory, not an entire new computer. I don't have a laptop; my daughter does, but because she needs it away from home during the school year. I have no kind of tablet, i or otherwise. I don't need it. Though if someone were kind enough to make me a present of it and take care of the internet connection every month, I wouldn't reject it! I think the most advanced piece of electronics I have in my house is my phone. And that's enough.
I have learned to stop and think if I need something. And do we really need all the new technology that has appeared in recent years? I can understand that professionals who sometimes work from places other than their office have laptops and tablets. I can understand someone who works in certain jobs who needs the latest technology. I can't understand a family of three who might have two desktop computers, four laptops, three tablets, and their own smartphones. And an interactive television that connects to internet and can do almost everything a desktop can. Yet, that seems to be what so many families who can afford it, aspire to. I know an eleven year old girl who has a smartphone, two tablets and free use of her mother's laptop. As well as the desktop they have at home. What happened to dolls, books, jump ropes, and games of tag? There's another eleven year old boy who plays soccer in a kid's team. But that's all he plays. Because at home he only plays with his tablet. He doesn't play any physical games at home except sometimes kicking the ball with a young nephew. His stomach is starting to look like the round ball he kicks.
The whole world has become interconnected and we need to be somewhere in there ourselves. But we don't need to be connected all the time nor everywhere nor with the latest microchips. I'm glad my daughter has always realized that, but I wish she would realize sometimes a small change is good.
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