Technology is the cause of (and possibly a cure for) my bajiggity life...


The above was a Tweet I sent to the blog...learning all about the technology I have available now has felt a bit overwhelming, even though it doesn't require all the special programming languages that it used to. Thank goodness...

What I was thinking was that for so long I resisted certain kinds of technology - notably a cell phone - as an intrusion, a nuisance and an unnecessary expense. I had one when my father was ill because I was four hours away. After he died, I said there was no reason for me to have one. And truth be told, I didn't like feeling like I had to be that available.

Fast forward to Fall of 2008 when I was supposed to be teaching in Bankok for a month. I decided I wanted a connection to home so bought an iPhone to take along. In the year plus since then I've found that I can control the phone, it doesn't have to control me. That it is a fabulous tool - not toy - and is truly helpful. That said, I do still find life becoming more impersonal (an aspect of bajiggityness for me) and try to build in simple joys all around me. But, the phone isn't the problem, it's how people become addicted to the phone or any other technology to take the place of true connection - the face-to-face kind. Don't get me wrong, being in touch via technology is better than not being in touch. But it isn't the same, and no matter how much improvement there is, I don't think it ever will be in my lifetime.

Oh, and in case I left you hanging, I never got to Bangkok. That was the time - you may remember - when the folks in support of the Thai king took over the Bangkok airport and shut it down. I was stuck in Tokyo waiting to find out when/if the airport would open and woke up to the terrorist attack in Mumbai. Needless to say air travel in that part of the world was...er...experiencing delays and cancellations of a major nature. It didn't take me long to decide to turn around and come home. Perhaps that was the beginning of my decision to bloom where I'm planted....