Zen and the Art of Computer Dependency
We live in an automated age. Almost anything I want to know or do, can happen online. I can research hotels, buy tickets, pay bills, send e-cards, look up old college friend's police records... anything!
But now that I've gotten used to this, I want it to be even quicker. I want my airline miles posted the second I land at my destination. I want my credit card to reflect any transactions within the last 10 minutes. I want my bank balance to reflect payments and deposits made during my lunch hour. If I'm on the phone with you, and you tell me you just sent me an email, I want to hear the sweet ding of an incoming message immediately. If that does not happen, something must be wrong with my work server. I better be able to copy and paste in one application while simulateneously opening another and attaching a separate file to the email I am typing.
Does this make me an efficient worker of just plain impatient? Have you ever gotten on somebody else's computer, you know the one that takes 40 minutes to boot up and just as long to do everything else, and felt like you were being tortured? Is this my karma coming back to slap me in the face for something horrible I did while multi-tasking? Is it some higher-being trying to teach me a lesson to slow down? Whatever it is, I want instant gratification and I want it NOW. Make things faster, make turn-around time even quicker, make a keyboard that can guess what I am going to type so I can be three sentences ahead of myself at all times. But then again, the quicker we work, the more work we have to do... (this being said as I write my blog, while monitoring my IMs, listening to my iTunes, waiting for a phone call, checking my online calendar and email and hear my cell phone ring.) What a glorious fast-paced technological world we live, not quite in, but behind the glowing screen of our monitors. Remind me when I grow an extra eyeball from all the rays of my computer and cell phone that this was all worth it at the time and that I loved every second of it!
But now that I've gotten used to this, I want it to be even quicker. I want my airline miles posted the second I land at my destination. I want my credit card to reflect any transactions within the last 10 minutes. I want my bank balance to reflect payments and deposits made during my lunch hour. If I'm on the phone with you, and you tell me you just sent me an email, I want to hear the sweet ding of an incoming message immediately. If that does not happen, something must be wrong with my work server. I better be able to copy and paste in one application while simulateneously opening another and attaching a separate file to the email I am typing.
Does this make me an efficient worker of just plain impatient? Have you ever gotten on somebody else's computer, you know the one that takes 40 minutes to boot up and just as long to do everything else, and felt like you were being tortured? Is this my karma coming back to slap me in the face for something horrible I did while multi-tasking? Is it some higher-being trying to teach me a lesson to slow down? Whatever it is, I want instant gratification and I want it NOW. Make things faster, make turn-around time even quicker, make a keyboard that can guess what I am going to type so I can be three sentences ahead of myself at all times. But then again, the quicker we work, the more work we have to do... (this being said as I write my blog, while monitoring my IMs, listening to my iTunes, waiting for a phone call, checking my online calendar and email and hear my cell phone ring.) What a glorious fast-paced technological world we live, not quite in, but behind the glowing screen of our monitors. Remind me when I grow an extra eyeball from all the rays of my computer and cell phone that this was all worth it at the time and that I loved every second of it!
posted by Tracy at 2:30 PM
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