LIFE CHANGES FASTER THAN WE DO

Living in today's world for people who don't like change is getting impossibly difficult.  There was a time, only a relatively few years ago when life could be lived without adjustment to too much change in one's life.  Religious sects like the Shakers lived simply but died out when they refused to allow sexuality even for procreation.  Religious practices are getting harder and harder to maintain when one moves elsewhere in the world where they are not supported as with Muslim women who want to cover themselves totally.  When Florida refused to issue a driver's license to a woman who would not be recognized on her driver's license, some people were shocked. In France, the practice of covering one's self is now forbidden.  If you are interested in learning more about the 'hijab', click here.  Covering up is not mandatory but a choice as are practices of walking, not riding, on the Sabbath for Orthodox Jews.

Many do not want their lives cluttered with computers, TV, microwaves and other bits of technology so crucial to others.  Nevertheless, choosing the 'simpler' life style may be getting more and more difficult rather than simple.  There are many things that can't be done without technology.  People have to pay more (such as the purchase of plane tickets) without doing it using a computer.  Even paying some bills by phone can no longer be done without an extra charge.

In addition to cost, all that one might need to live comfortably may no longer be within one's physical range.  Those without cable TV will no longer be able to absorb a sense of the world of politics, changes in laws, availability to update  information and easily have access to their own medical records.  I used to think those limitations, self-imposed, were only by old people but have found many people (still in their fifties or less) who do not own computers nor know how to use them.

One can only wonder what will happen to people who cannot adapt to current life.  Today we feel the difficulties in getting laws changed to fit the world and needs of today.  Resistance can be so powerful as to hurt many...we all saw this resistance to the Health Care Bill being passed.  How long can we who wish change be held back by those who fear it and refuse it?

COMPUTER RELIANCE, NOT ADDICTION

For years some friends have feared getting a computer, afraid they will get addicted.  That says little about their ability to stick to their own goals and strength of character.  The siren call of addiction has never been my fear though I use my computer more than many of my friends.  I have not bought a newspaper in ten years but I am far more informed, globally, than most of them.  I no longer buy reference books and always look up any word I don't understand.

People ask me how much time I spend on the computer.  For me that is not answerable as I use it as often as reasons for me to do so arise.  I play few games, only when I can multi-task doing something else like watching news or talking on the telephone.

One might say I have come to rely on my computers for information, news, entertainment, contact with friends, and spend less time doing all the things I do on it  than I would have before I had a  computer.  To me it is an extraordinary time saver, not time waster.  One might also say that a computer cannot make a leopard change its spots!  If you weren't interested in the news, before computers, you probably won't be now; educating yourself will not hold you either.  If you wish to make you life far more fulfilled in solitude, or with friends, it is all available.  If you lack social skills, good coping skills and judgment, you probably won't develop those with a computer, either.

Thus, I rely on my computers as I do any of the rest of the useful tools in my existence...the operative word being 'rely' not 'addicted'.