Is technology invading your space?

I spent most of the day cleaning my office, going through stacks of paper (moving it from one pile to another), stacking CD's, putting software back in it's cases, throwing away magazines that were a year old, you know, kind of spring cleaning.

As I was going through all my stuff I started stacking all the gadgets I have in one area on my desk. A cell phone, PDA, digital camera, mp3 player, USB thumb drive, cassette player (for books on tape), 3 different kinds of head phones, laptop, desktop, 2 wireless routers, cordless telephone, a digital clock, DVD player, 36" TV, Xbox and more. Wow, that is a lot of stuff. I doubt if I'm even close to most gadget geeks but it all looks amusing when put in a large pile.

A little while later I went to the store to pick up some evening snacks and things for tomorrow. I try not to shop on Sunday. I took my phone (in case the very important call comes in), my PDA that had the list of things I needed to get (because I hate carrying around little pieces of paper) and my CD case (to listen to some great tunes for my 2 minute ride).

Did I really need all that stuff? A guy I work with has it made in the shade. I noticed recently that he is very low tech in a high tech world. First I noticed that he doesn't have a cell phone. Doesn't need one. Nothing is that important he says. He has a phone on his desk. He doesn't own a PDA, an MP3 player, a digital camera or even a desk top PC (although he does have a laptop, used sparingly at home.)

I admire his low tech life style. I remember when I was a kid, I didn't have a cell phone or a PDA or almost any of the gadgets I do now. It was just as fun and a lot less stressful.

(coming back to finish this post a few hours later)

I was just up stairs trying to find something to watch on the satellite. Nothing. 900 channels and nothing. I don't have any movie channels because they are a huge waste of money, but you would think that something interesting would be on. Maybe its just me and I'm too tired.

Any way, to finish up my original post, there is a lot to be said about living a low tech life style. The stress of not worrying about the cell phone, email, satellite or Windows updates. Maybe the answer is a day on the links!