Low Tech

I enjoy reading the weekly posts over at The Archdruid Report [0].
Very thought-provoking. Last week's post [1] was on the aggression
and anger many face by admitting to eschewing a "modern" way of life
in favor of simpler, older technologies. The comments to this post
are full of interesting anecdotes.

As a child I read voraciously, in fact all through my 20s. Then the
family happened, along with suburbia, a house, two cars and
programming/sysadmin jobs, and somehow the digital screen took over
my life, for a time. It's very easy to fall into that lifestyle, and
in fact there is enormous social pressure to do so. I hear others
describing the affects, and I've seen it in myself and in my own
children - after many years of sound-bytes and feed-checking in a
hyper-connected culture it becomes difficult to concentrate for long
periods of time, particularly to finish books. I find myself
constantly wanting to check my email or blog feeds. I have stayed
away from facebook, thankfully. I grew up in the 70s, when it was
common as a 10-year old to spend all day outside, running home
briefly only for meals and then hurrying back outside to
explore/play/fight/run/ride until dark. At night I would read in bed
via flashlight. I still remember those days, and surely the
experiences shaped who I am. Will my kids remember their childhood,
spent in front of a screen watching youtube videos, playing
minecraft or call of duty? Does the push for computer use in schools
really benefit kids? Is it merely different today, sometimes good,
or actually harmful?

For myself, I find I feel better physically and mentally when I cut
back on technology. I have been trying to roll back my own
consumption of TV in favor of reading physical books. I keep my
'smart' phone in my office rather than at my bedside (unless I am
on-call). I use a rake rather than a leaf blower. I still enjoy
using older technologies like slide rules and paper journals. Since
2009 I have again been playing old-school tabletop pen-and-paper
RPGs, albeit sometimes via google hangouts (technology is not all
bad, especially when it enables real social interaction). I try to
limit my kid's use of social media and TV. That's just me, and
again, maybe the internet culture is all just different and won't be
harmful at all as the current generation grows up and enters the
workforce. Or, maybe we're creating a generation of chronically
depressed, unfit, barely-literate uber-consumers. Time will tell.

[0] http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com
[1] http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-shadows-in-cave.html