116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
On Topic: The show-me state of mind
Michael Chevy Castranova
Jan. 5, 2012 5:22 pm
Performance artist Laurie Anderson a few years ago received a large grant of money for a project in which she went around asking noted thinkers and artists “if things were getting better or if things were getting worse.”
The responses, as you'd imagine, were mixed. Much of the discussion centered on our rapid, helter-skelter advances in technology.
Anderson didn't contact me for comment - I know, I was surprised, too - but I believe my answer would have been, “Well, a little of both.” Particularly when it comes to technology.
It is true I've not been what Everett Rogers would call an early adopter. But I'm no Luddite, either.
I'm more of a cautiously suspicious, eyes-narrowed, shoulders-hunched-up adopter.
I do tend to suspect some technology can bring bad karma. (Don't get me started on my well-reasoned theory on how spell-check makes for lazy thinking.)
Tech and the weather get the same consideration, in my mind: I don't drag the snowblower out of the shed until there's white stuff on the ground.
But show me a darned good reason … .
I took up Facebook because I needed an account to administer Business 380's site. But now, I admit, I check my own FB page a few times a day - to post birthday greetings, to read who's railing against which presidential candidate, to discover where my peripatetic niece is moving to now (last known location: Washington state) and to jealously view friends' photos of Italy, Patagonia or some blurry backyard in Cedar Rapids.
Vicarious thrills, right?
Twitter, too, took me a bit. But once I had a reason, I enlisted. (OK, I admit I got annoyed with a delayed iTunes download and signed up so I could tweet about it. I didn't say it was a good reason.)
I also see the convenience of DVRs. Once upon a time, in a pre-digital age, I'd imagined that it would be a great idea if someone invented a way to tape-record television programs, just like an audio tape recorder - wouldn't that be cool?
At work, I've found some software programs absolutely charming and fun, sometimes to art directors' terror - oh, look, you can change these paragraphs to different colors.
Others, I think, were out to get me.
At an earlier newspaper job, the exasperated head of corporate tech support once told me he found it somewhat perplexing as to why, if there was going to be a problem with a new software rollout, it inevitably happened at my business paper.
“I don't think it's anything you're doing on purpose,” he said with measured calm.
I told him how it probably was just like how I always set off the metal detectors back when they had them at airport security stations. He was not reassured.
From that conversation on, all new programs were tested at my newspaper first. We became the parent company's guinea pigs in the cause of publishing technology.
The good news: We got to try everything first. The bad news: We got to try everything first.
The pluses for global positioning systems also are pretty obvious, especially for travelers with a seriously limited sense of direction. (“Do you mean turn left right here, or when I get to the end of the driveway?”)
When my wife and I first visited Eastern Iowa to find a place to live, our rental car's GPS was invaluable - and we delighted in its pronunciation of “eye-OH-wah city” and “CORRAL-ville.”
On the other hand, I recall a recent conference trip to Las Vegas in which one of my co-workers, so frustrated by the system's mixed directional messages, tore the device from the dashboard and flung it out the window.
Cellphones have been a different matter. I resisted for a long time and didn't relent until my wife insisted, when my job at the time required my driving all over Michigan's lower peninsula.
My current cell - the only one I've ever owned - is, to be honest, pretty horrible. Its skill set consists of being able to text, tell time and, on occasion, make phone calls.
Sometimes it even receives them.
In the unfortunate instances when I've had to contact customer service, each and every call has ended in tears and screaming.
One whole day, my phone wouldn't stop ringing. There were no incoming calls, it just decided to ring. All day.
But you see what I mean about needing a reason? We choose to move forward when we see the benefit.
I've been warned a smarter phone is in my future.