I Was Crippled For 5 Days

For the past five days, I have been without a computer. Do you know how much that turned my life upside down?!

My PC caught a virus which I though could be cleared up rather easily by an IT person. When I found out that it would take longer than expected and I would have to go days without my computer, I felt naked and lost. I went to the library one day to use the Internet, but it just wasn’t the same. And I didn’t get much work done. (Besides, the library wasn’t open everyday because of county budget cuts.) So, I was relegated to using my iPhone as my computer, and I think my eyesight has diminished more in the last five days than it has over the last 29 years of my life.

Not having a computer gave me a lot of time to think about the progression of technology and our dependency on it. My parents would probably feel lost without a landline telephone. I think it’s safe to assume that my generation would feel lost without a computer or cell phone. So I wonder what people in the next generation would feel lost without—maybe an iPad or an e-reader or maybe their favorite social networking site. I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that a large part of my day is spent and most of my work is completed on the computer. Not being able to quickly type emails, open big files (or access my files altogether), post on my blog, and fill Goddess Zuri orders left me a bit paralyzed.

So, the one thing I am committed to doing before the end of the first quarter is buying a Mac. My dependency on a computer has become quite crippling, and my days feel a bit awkward when I don’t have access to one. This experience has made me liken my reliance on a computer to the reliance of a child on parents. Absolutely crucial.