PC = Personal Catastrophe
If, when I was young, someone told me that someday, there would be one single machine that would be able to... store and play-on-demand my entire record collection, press my own LPs and 45s, develop, view and professionally edit every still picture and home movie I've ever taken, watch theatrical films in the comfort and convenience of my own living room, send teletype messages anywhere in mere seconds, allow me to order from every mail order catalog in the world, access whole vast libraries of information at will, be my own full-service travel agent, store, analyze and archive all of my research data, and almost instantly find porn of every imaginable sort without going through the clandestine "plain brown wrapper" routine... I never would have believed it. No one back in bygone days could have forseen such an invention.
But you know something? There's one thing I've found that no personal computer can do for me. They can't, by themselves, make me happy. In fact, looking at my life today in general, I have to say, I am nowhere near as happy or fulfilled a person now than I was before I ever owned a PC. Before 1985, I was radiantly and rapturously happy. Today, I am a wretched, empty and desperately unhappy creature - a complete hollow shadow of the promising young man I once was.
Computers didn't do this to me by themselves, though. I freely acknowledge - it's how I've used computers that's resulted in my destruction. The sad fact is, though, that this is how things are, and that there's no going back for me. I am helplessly addicted to this supremely seductive machine. And if its effect on my life has been this bad thus far, I can only imagine and despair at how much worse it's going to be for me in years to come...
But you know something? There's one thing I've found that no personal computer can do for me. They can't, by themselves, make me happy. In fact, looking at my life today in general, I have to say, I am nowhere near as happy or fulfilled a person now than I was before I ever owned a PC. Before 1985, I was radiantly and rapturously happy. Today, I am a wretched, empty and desperately unhappy creature - a complete hollow shadow of the promising young man I once was.
Computers didn't do this to me by themselves, though. I freely acknowledge - it's how I've used computers that's resulted in my destruction. The sad fact is, though, that this is how things are, and that there's no going back for me. I am helplessly addicted to this supremely seductive machine. And if its effect on my life has been this bad thus far, I can only imagine and despair at how much worse it's going to be for me in years to come...