Tech Stuff

In the 1970s if I'd seen someone walking around alone and talking out loud I'd have assumed he or she was mentally ill. Today I see people doing that all the time.

As a kid I wouldn't have guessed people would be able to do all the things technology allows us to do today.

And who knows what the future may bring?

Mechanical arms are becoming available for people who can't use their usual arms because of a special need. I predict one day we'll have brain implants that let us plug a third arm into a shoulder whenever we could use an extra hand.

But tech stuff isn't always good.

I heard on the radio (Yes, I still listen to one of those old fashioned things) that kids are suffering because their parents are always using their tech devices instead of interacting with their children.

And we've probably all heard that it's bad for kids to use their own phones, etc. as much as they do.

My writerly imagination makes me wonder if one day the government will require everyone to use devices, or even brain implants, that let them track us all the time.

I love that I can communicate with people all over the world and have connected with some I hadn't had contact with in years through the internet.

I spend lots of time on my computer every day and, since I did terribly in my school typing class, I probably couldn't have become a published writer without modern technology.

But there can be too much of a good thing. Sometimes we just need to set limits.

Tech Stuff

I consider myself a techno-idiot, but I do things with technology I couldn't have imagined doing a few decades ago. Technology has become part of our daily lives and it's everywhere from computers, tablets and cellphones to alarm clocks and heating systems.

And today's kids are absolutely addicted to their technological devices.

That's not necessarily bad, but it has some important disadvantages.

Decades ago I read a library book that had been published in the 1940s or 50s. I can't remember the author or title, but some of the content has stayed with me.

The book said back in Victorian times when ladies protected their skin from the sun upper class girls often didn't reach puberty until about 15 years old. The author referred to the song, Sweet Sixteen and Never Been Kissed, as an example. But, he said, lower class girls who often worked out in the fields reached puberty at around 12 or 13. But he said because kids at the time the book was written spent so much time watching television, and the light in the rays coming from TV screens was the same frequency as sun rays, kids would be reaching puberty earlier.

I don't know how valid his idea was, but today's kids are spending hours every day with their faces close to devices that emit the same kind of light rays. And it's not unheard of now for girls to reach puberty when they're eight years old.

Of course we've all heard of the problems getting kids to pay attention to other things when they're busy texting, and they often communicate that way with people standing near them.

Technology has given us wonderful advantages, but it also has some disadvantages.