I remember my childhood with bittersweet fondness. The reason I say bittersweet certainly includes the Type-1 Diabetes diagnosis I got at the tender age of 4. I lived a simple life, even before that. Unlike many people who are diagnosed, I had no “bad habits” to speak of, no addictions to sugary products and no horrible diet. This, in part, was due to my older brother and his own ailments, which kept anything artificial, sugared or high in sodium out of the house. By virtue of this, the biggest pain in my ass (literally) were the insulin injections. Otherwise, I was an overall pretty content child.
One of the best aspects that I can remember from my childhood is a lack of dependence on technology. The concept of “binge-watching” television wouldn’t become a prominent aspect of home life for another thirty years. Computers in the home weren’t common. Cell phones weren’t a domesticated thing. When I woke up in the morning, I had breakfast, at. A dining table and conversed with family. this was followed by either school or playing with toys and/or going outside. My entertainment came from my own imagination as opposed to streaming clips of random people doing weird bullshit out in society for my enjoyment. It was simpler time.
As I got older, friendships developed and my time was spent playing away from the home. Once I learned to tell time., I had a simple wristwatch and was given a curfew. As long as I was back by that time, my parents rarely knew where I was, what I was doing or who I was with. There was a simple freedom to it all; knowing that if one needed a touch of peace, one could escape to the cliff-side ledge I used to sit on, that looked out over our open bay, or sit on the stone outcrop atop Dalhousie Mountain and stare out at kilometres of lush boreal forests spreading south of me. If someone wanted to get a hold of me, they’d call my home, where a message would be taken and not delivered until I decided to return.
While the respective peace of my childhood is greatly missed, this isn’t to mean that I don’t have a fond appreciation for the advancements in technology that we’ve made over the past several decades. After all, those advancements have brought me from manual insulin injections and poorly controlled blood sugars to a world of insulin pumps, constantly monitored and adjusted blood sugars and better health. I predict that in the next couple of decades, I may find my way into something akin to never having to address my Diabetes again, even if it means it’s controlled and monitored by technology instead of me.
The negative side to all of these advancements comes from how society uses the technology. Privacy, while deeply coveted by most, has become a thing of the past. People can reach you anywhere, anytime, at any hour via cell phones. Apps, devices and even our televisions listen to us and make “recommendations” or “suggestions” based on our habits, preferences and even what we say in a room. It’s no coincidence that if I mention to my wife that I’m craving pizza, an ad for a pizza chain will “coincidentally” pop up on my social media feed. Big brother is always watching.
But we’ve become inadvertently tethered to our technology. I’ll be the first to admit that I’d be in horrific health, if not for my continuous glucose monitoring system. But we all have our devices, our smart phones, our streaming services… And they effectively govern our lives, now. No one ever needs to try and find directions somewhere or ask for them; just look it up on your phone. No one ever needs to research a particular topic. Why would you, when you can just Google it? Ever sit in public transit or in a food court? No one is usually speaking; everyone has their eyes down at their phones. A major pain in my ass when I’m trying to walk from point A to point B and some wretched son of a bitch is walking into me because his eyes are on his fuckin’ phone… But I digress…
Technology is fast becoming a commonality in daily life, with many aspects of it considered more of a necessity than a luxury. In many ways, this is reminiscent of when cars were invented and became common. While only the wealthy may have initially taken advantage, eventually it became a necessity for most family households to have at least one vehicle. The same can be said now, with the internet. In the 1990’s, the internet was that annoying thing that took almost ten minutes to get connected, where a full page would take minutes t boot up and would usually have that shitty 8-bit feel to it, with no picture resolution and everything seemed to be written in Times New Roman.
These days, the internet, and more specifically wifi, controls almost everything. Our phones, tablets, computers and televisions are primarily wifi-driven. And even some smart homes are designed with their critical functions tethered to the home’s wifi. So this begs a very important question; what happens when your wifi fails? My family and I discovered this the hard way this past weekend. After a brief power outage, we realized our wifi connection was no longer maintaining itself. After attempting resets and reboots on my own, a short call to our service provider confirmed it; our modem was outdated and would no longer function. A situation brought only to light by the brief outage of power.
It was Friday night, a night famous in my household for gaming and movies with my oldest, who has never known a world without internet and devices. I made my peace a long time ago with the fact that my children would never have the childhood I did. But I never realized just dependent they were on internet until this weekend happened. The earliest we could attempt a fix would be Saturday afternoon. This was made possible only if I brought the old modem into my local provider’s store and got an upgraded replacement and installed it myself. Waiting for. A technician would require a further number of days.
Anxious to restore the status quo, I got up first thing on Saturday morning (my usual morning to try and sleep in) and made my way into the downtown area to hit up the shopping mall that held my nearest supply store. I hate crowds of people at the best of times. Hobnobbing with shoppers on their weekend excursions did NOT appeal to me. But i got the replacement modem and installed it on my own. Using the instructions the tech on the phone provided the previous evening, I was able to get it up and running and connect wifi to our television and devices around the house. A collective sigh of relief ensued.
It was barely twenty four hours but it was a significant wake up call for me to realize that my family was utterly dependent on the internet. Despite books, toys, puzzles and games, the outdoors, the almighty Skynet still reigns. Ultimately, there’s no putting pandora back in the box. Technology, barring some major global catastrophe, will continue to evolve and improve our lives in some ways. But it will also strengthen our dependence on it in other ways. is it a bad thing? Time will tell. But it’s important to remember that we’re still human. And as humans, we should occasionally take the time to sit on a stone outcrop and stare at the sea. Food for thought…☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 