Every Wednesday, for one of my clients, I write a sort of “technology round-up” newsletter with links to articles about an obscure realm of the computing world. To dredge up any articles that might be interesting to those in said obscure realm, I have to surf a LOT of technology sites.
Pretty much every day, there’s some big techno hubbub about something, so I’m remarkably well informed on a wide range of basically trivial topics. My husband James calls these tidbits UBIs or “useless bits of information.”
For example, almost every week, I can find some UBI that breathlessly expounds on some new place you can surf the Internet. A few recent ones talk about connections in airplanes, cars, cabs and other forms of transportation.
Maybe I’m just jaded from being exposed to years of this stuff, but I find I really don’t care. The thing is, I don’t want to surf the Internet while I’m in a car or an airplane. I’d rather look out the window or read a book.
It dawned on me recently that the reason why I’m not interested is because to me a computer means work. I don’t play games or do anything other than work on my computer. The ubiquity of ever-tinier computers doesn’t appeal to me at all because I don’t want to work all the time. When I turn off my computer and close my office door, work is over, and my computer is inaccessible.
In our rush-rush society, it’s become unacceptable to say, “I don’t want to work all the time.” Yet I think it’s a better thing for my clients that I don’t work 16-hour days and I have a life filled with interests and hobbies that have nothing to do with computers.
Being able say goodbye to my computer is really just a good thing for everyone 😉