I'm back, and feeling a bit like Rita Repulsa from the intro to the old Power Rangers TV show. It feels as though I've been gone for the ten thousand years she was trapped in a jar on the moon. Don't ask. If you haven't seen the show, here's a link to what I'm talking about. Rita is the one screaming about conquering Earth. While I'm not exactly interested in conquest, I do feel as if I've been liberated after a long imprisonment. If you could call hardware failure an imprisonment. Finally, however, I am up and running again.
There's a lot to unpack from my recent involuntary hiatus. First and foremost, I celebrated the holidays with my family, which was important. I have two young children so Christmas is kind of a big deal in my house. Secondly, it gave me a chance to focus on other things, like the novel I've been working on for the last couple of years or the new air fryer I got as a gift. Perhaps most relevantly here, though, it gave me a chance to see just how much of a slave to technology I have become, and how ungrateful I was for it.
Cell phones, laptops, desktops, tablets... Wireless internet and electricity readily available wherever we go. These are things we've come to take for granted, and nothing made that clearer to me than having one of them unavailable for a couple of weeks. Sure, I still had electricity, internet, and my phone, but without a desktop to do my schoolwork on, I was certain I'd fall irrevocably far behind. Sure, I was able to get most of my mandatory reading done, but as I've learned reading something isn't the same as learning it. It seemed like a situation a few steps shy of the end of the world. Yes, that's melodramatic. It's melodramatic on purpose, because my realization of how far I was overreacting caused me to step back and look at myself and my behavior a bit.
I've become so attached to my devices that I'm rarely without them. In fact, I have my phone with me nearly every second of every day. I'm not alone in that respect. Cell phone usage has become so prevalent it has even garnered its own addictions and phobias. According to PsychGuide, 71% of people sleep with or next to their phones and 44% of Americans claim they would not be able to go a day without using their cell phones. These kinds of numbers are terrifying when you consider just how ubiquitous the cell phone has become. And when I stop and think about the last time I left my phone somewhere away from me for more than a few minutes. Somehow it became a necessary part of my life, a tool that is an extension of my will, and that allows me to complete research, read, watch TV, play games, listen to music, communicate with others via social media and e-mail, write, and do any number of other things. Things that, before cell phones, I had to have dozens of different things to do.
This, in turn, made me think about the difficulties low-income households have with things like technology. A low-income household can't afford internet, or a computer, or any of the technology I take so for granted. These people don't have the means to afford an e-reader and Kindle books, a laptop for easy, portable productivity, a cell phone with an unlimited data plan and Netflix or Disney+, or a desktop for power gaming. They may not be able to afford food, clothes, or rent; things that are absolutely necessary for survival. I may have been frustrated and disgruntled by not having a desktop available when I needed it, but for people in those situations, they don't have the option of having it in the first place. Instead they rely on libraries and public access terminals when they need something online, and do without when they don't have access at all.
What was an inconvenience for me is little more than a daydream for those of limited means.
It's more than a little humbling to look at my frustrations from that context. I can sit and rage about how the hard drive died and took a bunch of data with it, or I can instead be relieved I have the chance to use it regularly and on demand. It's a harsh lesson, but all the more important for being so, and I wish it was one others would share so that they, too, could modify their behaviors to be less angry.
Be grateful for what you have, because others can only dream of it.