I've entertained the idea lately of getting a smartphone. I'm in love (is that possible?) with the HTC Droid Incredible phone. I like having access to the maps, personal planner, the fact that it is an awesome camera with flash (8 mega pixels baby!) and video as well. However, the selling point is focused on facebook and twitter clients - imagine their shock when they find out I don't facebook! I'm like one of the few in the world lol. I do twitter but not like most use twitter - I twitter what I think would be useful tweets - not wasteful ones but that is another post 'eh? <--thanks to Candy for my online Canadian accent.
I want the smartphone WITHOUT the required $30 data package because I would be using the Wi-Fi feature but unfortunately, Verizon is a step ahead of frugal people like me and they won't allow it. So since, I'm not about to pay for something I don't need - what's a girl that just wants the groovy camera/phone to do!? Anyway, so back to the topic at hand - technology shaping our personalities. Have you noticed more stress since you added in more technology? Was it less stressful when we just wrote letters and mailed them and talked to people in person and snuggled up with a good book? Have we let in our own destruction? hindrance? weight that so easily besets us? Is it really that way or are we better because of technology? These are some questions that only you can answer for yourself but the NY Times has tried to answer them for you.
My conclusion is this - we are too STIMULATED! There is so much stimulation in technology that we are like crazy maniacs with information shooting at us from every direction. We are stimulated to clean our homes, stimulated to organize, stimulated to socially interact - YET, we are so FULL of stimulation that we are disabled when we are "disconnected" with our technology and faced with real life. So in reality, we are stimulated to do but we don't DO. I call it "Overwhelming-Disabling Stimulation Syndrome" ODSS - yep I coined the term - so mark it down.
So I wanted to see if the technology I use has affected my focus, so I took the online focus tester and I was surprised by the results - evidently I have great focus and scored perfect on the first part. Go figure - I'm a (very, crazy-scary) high multi-tasker and always have been but my personality (thanks to my Sergeant mentor in the AF) - performs BEST under pressure. Not sure why that is but I do and I can look back on my life and see the times I was under the most pressure or trials/crisis - I took to town with a bucket-load of fiery-yielding determination that drove me to success. Go figure 'eh? But I'm not the average person, I'm weird - just ask someone they will tell you..........so for the rest of you trying to talk on your phone, text your BFF, snap a pic of your kid at the park and check your email at the same time you drink your latte - SLOW DOWN Bertha! You are going way too fast.......reminds me of an old country song by Alabama "I'm in a Hurry (and don't know why)":Chorus
I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why
Verses
Don't know why I have to drive so fast
My car has nothing to prove
It's not new
But it'll do zero to sixty in five point two
Can't be late, I leave in plenty of time
Shakin' hands with the clock
I can't stop
I'm on a roll and I'm ready to rock
Oh, I hear a voice
That says I'm running behind
Better pick up my pace
It's a race and there ain't no room for someone in second place
Does Technology shape your personality? Are you addicted? Could you take one week off from technology? You tell me........
In our house, we have decided to start "scheduling" in our daughter's computer/tech time each day and not allow her to be shaped by technology but rather by Christ. Using technology as the useful tool it is without the idol-worshiping of it that is so readily evident in the worldly system today.
