After probably frying my daughter's stereo tonight by leaving it too close to the humidifier, it took 2 grow adults half and hour to figure out how to sooth our precious (and particular) 5 year old to sleep. She
needed her music and what should have been a simple task turned into an incredibly silly ordeal.
It got me thinking. What about all those times when you only had 1 option? I had a Walkman once. It broke and I upgraded to a portable CD player - which I had for years! I had a stereo system - with 2 tape decks thank you very much. It was the only one in the house. If anyone wanted to listen to music, they came to my room. My first car, didn't even come with a tape deck! If at any time, that one device broke - I was out of luck. No music for me that day. And you know what? Oh well.
So tonight, after running through every possible scenario of the seemingly simple task of getting music into my daughter's room it strikes me as very funny that after: dismissing the old 'boom box' (it doesn't always play CDs right) my work lap top (because I didn't feel like disconnecting it from it's external monitor), my other lap top (because, hello? I need that one tonight!), the old Mac in the bedroom (but what if we want to watch a movie before bed?) - my brain finally settled on the ancient lap top gathering dust under the dresser. No one needed that one tonight and it still works! Now...if I could only remember the password....
My daughter is finally asleep basking in the soft glow of a 10 year old Toshiba.
Really?
Now granted, my guy works in IT and sometimes it feels like our house is a place technology comes to die. But still. Think about it. How many things do you have in your house that do exactly the same thing? How many can openers? How many pairs of scissors? How many things that can make music happen? Or that you can watch a movie on?
Now think about how many ways you can read. Do you have a computer? More then one? What about a smart phone? iPod or iPad? Nook? Kindle? ACTUAL PAPER AND INK BOOKS?
Some of you may only have one or two of these things and a few years ago, I really didn't have any. I'm lucky in my life at the moment but sometimes I ask myself, how much is too much?
When I was younger and I wanted to read a book, I did just that, I went to my bookshelf and I picked up a book. No other option was ever available to me.
Today? I have to ask myself not only WHAT I want to read but HOW I want to read it. Did I put that NetGalley book on my iPad or my Nook? Did I start reading it on my computer at work? What about that short story I downloaded? Is it still on my phone?
How much time do I waste with these ridiculous 'problems'? More then I should.
Now, I feel that I work hard and when I do spend money on myself it's almost always book / reading or technology related. I just never thought that the two would be so very connected - at least in my life.
So I ask you, how has technology changed the way you read? Has it affected you at all?
I for one could never envision a world without hard copy books. Books you have to hold in your hand and open to read. Books make out of paper and ink. Digital just isn't the same. But it is here and it's hard to ignore at times.
In a lot of ways, technology has made my reading experiences better. On a very basic level, without technology, there wouldn't be book bloggers (or any bloggers for that matter). There wouldn't be this wonderful virtual community where we can all gather and share. So for that, I will always be grateful.
But sometimes? It's too much. And even in the end, if I do choose to pick up that paper and ink book, the journey to my bookcase now takes a little bit longer.
