Hello, my fellow Observers! It's good to be back after a nice getaway with my family. A break in your usual routine that allows you to step back and enjoy time with the ones you love or engaging in activities that make you happy is essential and enlightening. Essential to keep what's left of your sanity in tact and enlightening in the fact that as the older you get the faster time escapes you. Two weeks seems so long on a paper calendar but is very short in one's reality. Being more aware of the passage of time was not the only thing that I Observed while I was away. Certain situations that occurred reminded me of a time, not so long ago, and brought back memories and experiences I reflect upon fondly.
While vacationing on an east coast island, the property that we stay at had a few inconveniences that we didn't expect while making our plans. Upon arriving, we unloaded our car, settled in a bit and after an hour or so we realized that our cell phones didn't work, we had no WiFi for our tablets and the only channels that came in on our TV were Ion, Qubo, QVC and HSN. We have been staying at this particular property for years, one of the constants in our family's life that is loved by all of us, and have never had this problem before. We've always had cell service and although limited, we usually had a dozen or so channels to watch including the major networks, but no such luck this year on either count. As far as the WiFi was concerned, we didn't expect it but we brought our tablets anyway.... just in case. Whatever changes in cellular territories and digital signal strength that had happened in the past couple of years since we had been to our favorite home away from home wreaked a certain amount of havoc on us our first night there and we all found ourselves having to snap out of the "no-tech" shock we were in. Like many other families, we have fallen victim to technology addiction. For the past several years we've been connected daily to the internet and use it for.... well... everything. Facebook, Twitter, weather, news, sports, movies, videos, emails.... you name it, one of us is using it for something. Our seven year old daughter is a YouTube "junkie" and I have personally witnessed withdrawal symptoms that would put a heroin addict to shame.
With our current status "offline", we all had to make adjustments to our current predicament. My wife couldn't post photos. Our daughter not only couldn't stream video but couldn't play her online games as well. Our son was unable to Skype with his girlfriend in Idaho and worst of all... I couldn't watch football or racing. I think, personally, I had the biggest reason to complain. I mean, really.... Sunday night with the Patriots playing in prime time and I couldn't watch it? I've decided that somewhere along the line, some type of karma had caught up with me. I thought about ditching the family, taking the car and heading to one of the few "off season" bars that was open to watch the game.... for about a half a second, but thought better of it. Especially since we had only been on island for a couple of hours. It was probably the right decision since I'm not a big drinker and the half mile, dirt driveway is a navigational nightmare in the daylight, let alone at night and.... oh yeah!... my wife would probably had divorce papers waiting for me the minute we got back to the mainland. So, not wanting to fall into he ranks of the financially handicapped and intimacy deprived, I did what any sports fan in my position (from my generation anyway) would have done. I found the game on the radio and listened to it instead.
While I was listening to that game, on that night, on that island with limited technology and limitless time with my family, I started to remember what it was like when we didn't have all these gadgets and gizmos. I realized, quite quickly, how easy it was to see the game in my mind's eye instead of on a 50 inch screen. How the excitement in the announcer's voice got me just as excited. Even if I couldn't see it, I could still feel it. It reminded me of a twelve year old boy in his room, head under the covers, after his bedtime, listening to a game on a transistor radio, hoping his mother wouldn't catch him and take it away. It took me back to a time of rabbit ears and aluminum foil. When FM and VHS were the newest technologies. When people asked you "What's your 20?" if you "Had your ears on?" warned us of "Smokies" and wished us "73's and 88's". When we had to put the needle back to the beginning of the record or rewind the tape if we wanted to hear a song again and a time when you could "wear out" that song instead of pressing the "repeat" button. When we couldn't fast forward through the commercials and were glad that they came on because we had to go to the bathroom or wanted a snack. When there were only four minutes of commercials every half hour instead of every ten minutes. When we missed something on TV, well.... we missed it.... and had to rely on other people to tell us what happened. When we didn't need to know what the weather was going to do every 8 minutes, we just looked out our window. When we heard a new song from our favorite band for the first time.... on the radio. When we made song dedications to each other. When we could make prank phone calls without the fear of *69 or caller ID. When social and media, fiber and optic, bucket and list were all separate words. When networks were TV stations, our televisions only had two colors, only four or five stations (depending how good of an antenna you had) and we all took turns being the manual "remote". When some our most beloved shows were on UHF. A time where we wrote letters, rode bikes, rented videos, played in our backyards, built forts, climbed trees, played board games when it rained and found wonder in our part of the world instead of shutting it out by confining our lives to a five inch screen. When we spoke to each other instead of sending a text.... sometimes even at the dinner table. All this brought back to my memory by listening to just one football game on the radio.
We are experiencing a moment in time where it appears that we've acquired so much, yet within our acquisition of technology lies contradictions in our society's use of it.
Never before have we been so connected to each other, yet further apart.
Communicating every detail of our lives, yet saying nothing.
Been so informed, yet so uneducated and ignorant.
Had the world at our fingertips, yet grasping at straws.
Been this social, yet lacking interaction.
Been so technologically advanced, yet falling behind in our morality.
Have gained so much, yet seem to have lost more than we've obtained.
Somehow we have all fallen prey to these contradictions. As I stated earlier in this article, I'm just as guilty as the next tech-geek, but we have to ask ourselves how far we are willing to step away from each other in order to keep feeding our anti-social tendencies with the technology that allows us to do so without consequence. When do we start talking again instead of texting? Shake hands instead of Tweeting? Smile at someone instead of sending an emoticon? Yes, my loyal reader, it's good to be back, but being away can be an eye opening experience. Especially when epiphanies occur by not seeing with them. Just one football game on the radio. A few hours of listening. A few days of talking. A week without being burdened by being informed of everything can make you aware of so much. I've stated numerous times that although I believe our advances are indeed wondrous, it is what we do with them collectively that concerns me the most. As our technology evolves, the most important question we have to ask is.... When will we? Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I found an old Speedwagon tape.
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