Digital Delights

Technology is amazing.  Just think of all the things we can do today, that just even a mere ten years ago we couldn’t do.   Digital music players, cell phones with internet capability and e-mail capability, GPS devices built into cars, electronic book readers.  The list can go on and on.  It amazes me on a daily basis how dependent we have become on technology and what seemed like a luxury yesteryear has become a necessity today.

This past week, I’ve had my own issues with my digital world.  After working on an essay, the one I was hoping to submit at some point, I was getting ready to have a friend read it.  I plugged my 4 GB thumb drive into my computer where I clicked on the file name to open the document.  Nothing.  I ejected it and put it in my laptop.  Nothing.  Hmm.  Turns out the file had somehow become corrupted and it was gone.  My throat began to tighten up with frustration, but luckily, other files on the drive were fine.  I moved all the files to my laptop and formatted the thumb drive to avoid the issues in the future.  It makes me miss those days where I had to write any and all work out by hand before my English teacher would let us go to the computer lab to work on the word processors.  You see, it wasn’t normal to turn in something actually typed back then.  I practiced my script and actually felt confident with it, until my world became a digital mess and I typed everything from notes, memos, letters, and blog posts.  Perhaps if I went back to that old way of thinking, I wouldn’t have lost the essay.  And it was amazing, let me tell you.  (I can say that because it’s gone….)

That same day, my 24 inch flat screen monitor at work decided that it would like to display all sorts of delightful colors other than those that would make my work visible.  Flashes of white, black, and a rainbow of blue, green, and red flashed across the screen before ending with the blank screen of death.  Luckily it is under warranty, so I can get a new one, but it makes my job very difficult to do without the added benefit of a second screen for the fifteen to twenty windows I have to have opened to run the Records Office.  Just a couple of years ago, a second screen would never have been heard of, now it is causing me a lot of extra time and exasperation to get work done without it.

Today, my laptop is sitting on my desk at work, next to my desktop.  I’m not using the laptop for work, just music.  It makes me wonder what I did before the days when I could carry my entire music collection around on a device the size of box of matches.  I seem to recall carrying around a couple of cassette tapes in my backpack along with my walkman.  Two or three were all that I could listen to, and space was an issue. Amongst the books and binders, taking my entire music collection would have been impossible.  Today, my iPod fits in my pocket and has enough space for days of music without ever repeating.  Really, what am I going to do with all that sound?  Enjoy it, and be thankful for the ease that technology gives me. 

What could be next up for me?  An e-book reader, though I’m not sure which one.  The thought of carrying hundreds of books with me at a time makes me giddy at the thought.  While I love the tactile feelings of a printed book, I have times when carrying a large number of books isn’t all that practical.  With a small device, I can have at least one hundred books with me whenever I feel the need to read.  It’s just a matter of time though.  It will become as necessary as everything else.  It is a luxury now, but just wait.

What type of electronic device can’t you live without?

Thanks Google for the image!