Based on some spooky Internet rumblings, I've been wrestling with a disconnect for several months. Does my disconnect qualify as a paradox? I'll let you decide that for yourself, while stating up front that any offers of assistance will be appreciated.
Though I'm no Luddite, I'm not real fond of the attendant side effects modern technology hurls at me. To mitigate those side effects, I try limiting screen time, avoid over-dependence on a cell phone, refuse most requests for my e-mail address, and sparingly use the only social media platform aimed at old farts like me, i.e., Facebook. Obviously, my blog is a major exception to this selective disdain for modern technology. Therein lies the root of my current disconnect.
Reflections From The Bell Curve: Words That Can Haunt Me, Part 1: Legacy
Because, as the thirteen-year-old post above demonstrates, reconciling myself to impermanence periodically haunts me. At the same time, the modern technology that I work hard at escaping as often as possible does, in fact, provide an avenue for leaving a footprint. And though my digital footprint is not permanent in any real sense - it is, after all, a footprint - it does dangle the tantalizing possibility that something, somewhere might still be around when I no longer am.
I realize my disconnect will not resonate with some. For example, those who believe in the eternal soul and/or a spirit of some kind that transcends the material world might scoff. Those not self-centered enough to have ever devoted any mental energy to impermanence or those evolved enough to have considered it but come to peace with the whole ashes to ashes/dust to dust bit might also think me frivolous. But for anyone left - if you're not too embarrassed to briefly throw in with this disconnected blogger - I'd welcome hearing from you.
Hello Pat. Very interesting post. However I love all this new technology. I can be somewhat of a geek with these things. I get a little excited when there are updates that be downloaded to my iMac, iPad and/or iPhone. Smart TV !!! Yes please!! Having the option to ask my Amazon Echo to play songs or podcasts of my choosing, and then stop playing in a specific time frame? Sign me up. Although, and I honestly have no explanation for this other than perhaps habit, I find it much more enjoyable to hold an actual book when I'm reading. As for leaving any 'mark' behind .. I'll leave that to others to decide.
ReplyDeleteBe well,
Bob
Bob; Thanks for the comment. Sounds like you embrace the technology more than I. Vive la difference!
DeleteHi Pat. I can totally relate to the sentiments you describe. I occasionally wonder what people will say about me when I am gone. I do hope they will say I made a positive difference. It is indeed spooky however that things like posts and blogs will remain out there it seems forever. If someone doesn't inform Facebook that you have died, your page stays there. I experienced this when someone with the same last name as my maiden name (which is very unusual) died. His page is still there to this day.....In terms of technology, I am somewhere between you and Bob. I do have a FB page and I do use NextDoor - both sparingly. I use my iPhone as a phone, for texts and for music. Ditto for iPad when connected to the internet. I also use apps when I am forced to but I am not crazy about all these apps. All the other stuff, no way.
ReplyDeleteInes; Thanks for the comment and bigger thanks for saying you can relate to my "sentiments". Long before you began reading my blog, I published the post imbedded between paragraphs two and three of this one. It was, in fact, the third post I ever published. When those recent spooky things happened on the Internet, it sent me back down this rabbit hole, one I'm afraid I've crawled into more than a few times in my (perhaps overly introspective) life. Oh well.
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