iQuit

The world has officially passed me by.

It seems I’ve been spending more and more time just attempting to keep up with it. And really, I’m not even keeping up, I’m just attempting to fall behind-er as slowly as possible. I’ve gotten tired of the losing battle. I’ve given up.

I can’t keep up with technology. I don’t want five remotes to figure out, 500 channels to cruise or the ability to watch three shows at the same time while recording two more. I just want to see a damned episode of HOUSE, find out what the weather is going to do tomorrow, and shut the thing the hell off. It would be nice to be able to pop in a DVD, but the menu of 17 parameters I must choose from in order to play it sucks the fun out of it. Just PLAY it, for god’s sake.

I don’t want a car commanded by computers and co-dependent on electronic components. I’d like to be able to manually open my windows in case said computers go belly up and refuse to let me out of my electronically-sealed vehicle. I’d like to not have to study hieroglyphics to understand the cryptic symbols that randomly light up on the dashboard next to the dials and meters that measure stuff I don’t understand. I need to know how fast I’m going and how much gas I’ve got. A radio would be nice. And build the damned thing so that it doesn’t take a genius with a PhD to change the oil.

I don’t want a smart phone. I don’t own one and hope I never will. Using a freakin’ phone shouldn’t be so much work – and it sure shouldn’t cost so much. I don’t want to surf the net, check emails, look up the answers to trivia questions while at dinner with friends or take photos and videos. I don’t have time to learn all that garbage and I don’t want to. It’s a PHONE, for crap’s sake. I just want it to make calls, get calls, and indulge in the occasional text message. I want to push a button and know that I’m going to be connected with the person I’m calling – not accidentally be taking a video of the inside of my ear.

I don’t have time for all the social media stuff. I have no desire to post my every move to Facebook or Twitter or TwitSpace. And I don’t want to have to wade through posts about your kid’s runny nose, or hear your religious or political rants just to be able locate some actual conversation I was having. It’s too damned tedious and steals minutes of my life I can’t get back.

I can’t keep up with computer and software upgrades. It would be a full time job just to keep abreast of all the advancements and changes in the software I use every day. My computer is now too outdated (at just a few years old) to upgrade the operating system and graphic design software further. I’d have to buy a new computer and all new software and spend about $5000. WTF!? I have a perfectly good computer and perfectly fine software. Why must you keep changing and upgrading and making it more complicated and expensive? Is it REALLY necessary to change the entire interface and all the toolbars EVERY SINGLE UPGRADE? There’s no way I can keep up financially or intellectually. I got a life going on here, I can’t devote the hours it would take just to wrap my brain around the latest thing, especially when I know what I learn is going to be outdated in a few months when the NEXT thing comes out.

I believe we have officially reached the point of diminishing returns with technology. Technology is supposed to make life easier and save us time. It’s gotten to the point where it instead sucks away our time and makes us RUN to keep up. We are slaves to technology, instead of the other way around.

So put down the gadgets once in awhile. There’s a whole real world out there. You oughta take a look at it sometime.