It wasn't that terribly long ago that I didn't even have a cell phone, yet now I'm annoyed when I don't have high-speed Internet access on my iPhone. — Image by pch.vector on Freepik
If you know me, you know I'm a big fan of technology. Not a day goes by that I'm not using some sort of gadget.
I live on my iPhone. The lights in my house are controlled by an app, as are the security cameras throughout. My job has me sitting in front of a computer most of the day, and I haven't read a paper book in years, instead preferring my iPad or Kindle.
But while I'm a major user of technology, I also often find myself not truly appreciating what we have to offer.
It wasn't that terribly long ago that I didn't even have a cell phone, yet now I'm annoyed when I don't have high-speed Internet access on my iPhone. In 2007, my future wife and I attended a Nascar race at Michigan International Speedway. We camped across the street from the track, and the race rained out. I remember using my flip phone at the time to access some semblance of the mobile Internet to find out what the plans were for the race the next day. It would take about a half hour to load a web page, and the radios required to do so would drain my battery in less than an hour. But I was OK with that, because I could get the information I needed, eventually.
Now I'm annoyed if I can't stream 4K video in the middle of nowhere.
It was comedian Louis C.K. who said, "Everything is amazing right now and nobody's happy."
He said now people are annoyed when their phone doesn't give them the information instantly.
"Give it a second," he says. "It's going to space. Can you give it a second to get back from space?"
No matter what you think of Louis C.K., he's not wrong. I remember when I was a kid, I dreamed of buying one of those little handheld TVs. They were awful, really. They were expensive, and they had like a little 3-inch black and white screen. There was a 37-foot antenna you had to have sticking up to watch anything, and even then the only signal you could probably pick up was PBS. Plus you'd have to plug it in, because the eight D-cell batteries would only last like 60 seconds until they died. And yet I dreamed of being able to watch TV in my hand.
Now I'm a YouTube TV subscriber, and I literally can do that on my phone. But not just PBS, I can get just about any cable channel that exists. When a movie comes out, I can watch it instantly, without the need to go to a store. When a new music album releases, I don't have to go to Walmart and hope it's not sold out - I don't even have to buy it. Instead I just open up Apple Music or Spotify and I can play it instantly.
I remember going to multiple bookstores to find the latest new release that I wanted to read, but now I go on my Kindle app and buy it ahead of time and it downloads to my device automatically the second it is released.
It really is amazing what we can do nowadays.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, of course. I remember how real I thought video games looked when the Nintendo 64 came out, but now video games actually look real. And you can play them with another person on the other side of the country with virtually no lag, just like they're sitting in the room with you.
We have electric cars, some that can even drive themselves. It's just amazing.
And yet, in the words of Louis C.K., "nobody's happy."
So next time you're in an area with a slow internet connection on your cell phone (and we all know there are plenty of places like that here in the Thumb), instead of getting annoyed, consider the fact that it's going to space, and take a moment and appreciate the technology that we have in our hands today.
I know I will. – The Huron Daily Tribune, Bad Axe, Mich./Tribune News Service
