technology and me.
I'm a bit hesitant to post this because I'm sure nearly all of you are quite a bit more knowledgeable about all this stuff than I am. So please don't laugh too cruelly at my ignorance.
Okay. So we all know I'm pretty much a luddite and I take pride in how little unnecessary gadgetry makes its way into my life. But I do recognize that some lifestyles support this kind of simplicity better than others do. Recognizing that I'm approaching that annual Day on which A Few People Pay Too Much Attention to Me & Give Me Stuff I Don't Need, as well as approaching a significant lifestyle change when I graduate this May, I have been giving some semi-serious thought to whether some of this gadgetry might prove more convenient than some of the stone-age technology I've been using.
And I've decided the answer is pretty much "no."
I thought it important, though, that I'm not absolutely against all such things--I did actually give some of them a little consideration. But I came to the conclusion that I'm still happy to be obsolete.
The first piece of unnecessary gadgetry I wanted to consider was a digital camera. In high school I had a nifty little point-and-shoot camera that used that Advantix film, which was kinda fun. But that camera broke three or four years ago, and I haven't had a camera since then, although I did buy a disposable camera on sale for $3 once. I would like to get some sort of camera before I leave Bloomington, because I have virtually no pictures to help me remember the splendid people and the places that were the setting for some of the most wonderful times of my life. Moreover, I want to start taking pictures again simply because I enjoy doing so. Someday I'll write a separate essay on the joy I get from creating a balanced composition.
Once I leave here, though, I'm not sure what reasons I'll be taking pictures for, other than the sheer enjoyment of it. Since I found myself at a loss to identify why I wanted to take pictures, I spent a few minutes looking around for other people's musings on their personal reasons. When I found this post and was looking for other similar ones, I read a great article with various tips for people buying digital cameras for trips to Europe. The article made me realize something that I of course knew but hadn't actually realized yet--how digital camera users are almost constantly reliant on other gadgetry. Between needing to recharge the camera frequently and then needing another device on which to store all the files, in addition to the general fragility of such devices, I don't feel like a digital camera would give me the independence and flexibility that I cherish.
I'm planning to more-or-less live out of a suitcase for the next year (well, a Duluth pack, more likely), so carrying a laptop is out of the question for me. In May I'll give my computer to my brother, who will be thrilled to have a gigantic machine that plays a lot of music and doesn't really do anything else, or at least not reliably. And by no means do I want to tie myself down by having to arrange to be able to access the internets every few days. (I think it will be an interesting change to live for at least a year without a computer of my own.) So I'm going to old-school it and get a camera that uses real live film. (Regular stores do still sell that stuff, right? Or does everybody who doesn't have a digital camera just use disposable cameras these days?) I remember last time I was at the Salvation Army (this was like last summer...I don't shop much...) seeing a few cameras there, so I'd hope to pick up something simple for just a few dollars. I'd probably pay extra to have some of my film put on CDs when I get it developed, but that expense will be drops in the bucket compared to the cost of a digital camera and all the requisite accessories. I'll look for a big bumbling simple thing so I can drop it a few times and get condensation in it a time or two and it won't all turn into oatmeal.
So once I had the camera situation figured out, I needed to decide what to do about my music. Currently, I'm using my parents' late-1980s stereo with big ol' speakers. I can listen to LPs and cassette tapes on that, and I have my discman and my computer alternately hooked up to it with a mess of cords. It sounds great and LPs are still moderately easy to come by for cheap, and I have a bunch of nifty old cassette tapes I got on Freecycle. I recently bought a little FM radio (that doubles as a flashlight ;P) from the dollar store, and it's added quite a bit of amusement to my walks around town. The radio is full of funny stuff.
However, the stereo's going into storage at my parents' for a year, and I want some way to have a lot of music available to me when I'm travelling, but there's no way I'm dragging around a huge wallet of CDs. I went through my iTunes and made a huge playlist that roughly resembled the part of my library I'd want to take with me; turns out it's about 4.6GB. Luckily, Google showed me there are scads of informational articles about different kinds of digital music players. I spent a short time reading reviews of various players and looking at price ranges, then I discovered something I didn't even know existed: portable CD players that will play MP3 CDs. By no means as portable or convenient as an iPod, but seems like quite a bit more value for your dollar. Five years ago, I paid $70 for my current discman, which has been dropped too many times to count but still works great. I haven't paid any attention to the prices of such things since then--it's probably been years since I've even set foot in a Best Buy or similar. To my surprise, portable CD players have actually become quite affordable and have a lot of nice features now. So I think I'll ask for a new CD player for my b-day, and with my new headphones and a little freebie CD wallet I have that will hold up to 12 CDs if you use it in ways other than how it was designed, I think I'll be set. I can pass on my old CD player to my sister, who I don't think has one yet.
Some months ago, my mother expressed interest in my acquiring a cell phone this summer. I expressed disgust at the idea and she hasn't mentioned it again. If she does, I am going to put my foot down and say that if she wants me to have one, she will need to pay for it. I'll contribute a small amount that I would have otherwise invested in phone cards. I will not keep it on, I will not call people unless I have to, and I will return calls at my leisure. From where I stand, e-mail serves me quite well for the vast majority of my communication (it's silent! and free!), and phone cards are fine for working out anything with complicated details. I guess I could probably use a gmail invite so I have something to replace my IU e-mail account with, though, if any of you would be so kind.
Okay. So we all know I'm pretty much a luddite and I take pride in how little unnecessary gadgetry makes its way into my life. But I do recognize that some lifestyles support this kind of simplicity better than others do. Recognizing that I'm approaching that annual Day on which A Few People Pay Too Much Attention to Me & Give Me Stuff I Don't Need, as well as approaching a significant lifestyle change when I graduate this May, I have been giving some semi-serious thought to whether some of this gadgetry might prove more convenient than some of the stone-age technology I've been using.
And I've decided the answer is pretty much "no."
I thought it important, though, that I'm not absolutely against all such things--I did actually give some of them a little consideration. But I came to the conclusion that I'm still happy to be obsolete.
The first piece of unnecessary gadgetry I wanted to consider was a digital camera. In high school I had a nifty little point-and-shoot camera that used that Advantix film, which was kinda fun. But that camera broke three or four years ago, and I haven't had a camera since then, although I did buy a disposable camera on sale for $3 once. I would like to get some sort of camera before I leave Bloomington, because I have virtually no pictures to help me remember the splendid people and the places that were the setting for some of the most wonderful times of my life. Moreover, I want to start taking pictures again simply because I enjoy doing so. Someday I'll write a separate essay on the joy I get from creating a balanced composition.
Once I leave here, though, I'm not sure what reasons I'll be taking pictures for, other than the sheer enjoyment of it. Since I found myself at a loss to identify why I wanted to take pictures, I spent a few minutes looking around for other people's musings on their personal reasons. When I found this post and was looking for other similar ones, I read a great article with various tips for people buying digital cameras for trips to Europe. The article made me realize something that I of course knew but hadn't actually realized yet--how digital camera users are almost constantly reliant on other gadgetry. Between needing to recharge the camera frequently and then needing another device on which to store all the files, in addition to the general fragility of such devices, I don't feel like a digital camera would give me the independence and flexibility that I cherish.
I'm planning to more-or-less live out of a suitcase for the next year (well, a Duluth pack, more likely), so carrying a laptop is out of the question for me. In May I'll give my computer to my brother, who will be thrilled to have a gigantic machine that plays a lot of music and doesn't really do anything else, or at least not reliably. And by no means do I want to tie myself down by having to arrange to be able to access the internets every few days. (I think it will be an interesting change to live for at least a year without a computer of my own.) So I'm going to old-school it and get a camera that uses real live film. (Regular stores do still sell that stuff, right? Or does everybody who doesn't have a digital camera just use disposable cameras these days?) I remember last time I was at the Salvation Army (this was like last summer...I don't shop much...) seeing a few cameras there, so I'd hope to pick up something simple for just a few dollars. I'd probably pay extra to have some of my film put on CDs when I get it developed, but that expense will be drops in the bucket compared to the cost of a digital camera and all the requisite accessories. I'll look for a big bumbling simple thing so I can drop it a few times and get condensation in it a time or two and it won't all turn into oatmeal.
So once I had the camera situation figured out, I needed to decide what to do about my music. Currently, I'm using my parents' late-1980s stereo with big ol' speakers. I can listen to LPs and cassette tapes on that, and I have my discman and my computer alternately hooked up to it with a mess of cords. It sounds great and LPs are still moderately easy to come by for cheap, and I have a bunch of nifty old cassette tapes I got on Freecycle. I recently bought a little FM radio (that doubles as a flashlight ;P) from the dollar store, and it's added quite a bit of amusement to my walks around town. The radio is full of funny stuff.
However, the stereo's going into storage at my parents' for a year, and I want some way to have a lot of music available to me when I'm travelling, but there's no way I'm dragging around a huge wallet of CDs. I went through my iTunes and made a huge playlist that roughly resembled the part of my library I'd want to take with me; turns out it's about 4.6GB. Luckily, Google showed me there are scads of informational articles about different kinds of digital music players. I spent a short time reading reviews of various players and looking at price ranges, then I discovered something I didn't even know existed: portable CD players that will play MP3 CDs. By no means as portable or convenient as an iPod, but seems like quite a bit more value for your dollar. Five years ago, I paid $70 for my current discman, which has been dropped too many times to count but still works great. I haven't paid any attention to the prices of such things since then--it's probably been years since I've even set foot in a Best Buy or similar. To my surprise, portable CD players have actually become quite affordable and have a lot of nice features now. So I think I'll ask for a new CD player for my b-day, and with my new headphones and a little freebie CD wallet I have that will hold up to 12 CDs if you use it in ways other than how it was designed, I think I'll be set. I can pass on my old CD player to my sister, who I don't think has one yet.
Some months ago, my mother expressed interest in my acquiring a cell phone this summer. I expressed disgust at the idea and she hasn't mentioned it again. If she does, I am going to put my foot down and say that if she wants me to have one, she will need to pay for it. I'll contribute a small amount that I would have otherwise invested in phone cards. I will not keep it on, I will not call people unless I have to, and I will return calls at my leisure. From where I stand, e-mail serves me quite well for the vast majority of my communication (it's silent! and free!), and phone cards are fine for working out anything with complicated details. I guess I could probably use a gmail invite so I have something to replace my IU e-mail account with, though, if any of you would be so kind.