I am not one of those people who pines for the way things used to be.<\/p>\n
I mean, I grew up before there was a vaccine for measles and related diseases, which means that I had every version of measles possible regularly from the time I was five to the time I was ten.<\/p>\n
I am fortunate that I had no lasting effects from those bouts, but it wouldn\u2019t have been a bad thing to have missed out on measles.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m a huge fan of vaccines and of other treatments and preventative measures for contagious disease. (I can rant about this at length, and have, but that\u2019s not my goal in this post.)<\/p>\n
In general, I\u2019m in favor of many of the changes that have occurred in my lifetime, the mechanical and the digital as well as the medical. For example, as soon as I learned to type, I began writing on a typewriter.<\/p>\n
I jumped to correcting typewriters as soon as I could afford one and I got my first computer in 1983 primarily as a writing device.<\/p>\n
I also love the communication options. Email is great. Texting is great. Having a phone with you so you can coordinate meeting up in person is fantastic.<\/p>\n
What I don\u2019t love are the constant changes and updates. While security updates are important and some changes do provide an improved product, there are way more updates than need to happen.<\/p>\n
And of course, if you don\u2019t want to change all those things, sooner or later your computer won\u2019t be able to use the tools it needs.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the other problem \u2014 and it might be the one that bugs me the most \u2014 these changes are sent along willy-nilly, with no regard to your reasons for using the device or what you might be doing at the time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like you get a message \u2014 email would work for this nicely \u2014 that says these updates are available and recommended and here is where you go to get them when you\u2019ve set aside some time for tech maintenance. Nor is it like you get a choice when, say, you don\u2019t really want to change your word processing program.<\/p>\n
No, they assume that the most important thing in your life is tech maintenance and interrupt whatever you\u2019re doing, when in fact the most important things are the projects that you\u2019re using the tech devices to do.<\/p>\n
Writing, analyzing data, meeting people via Zoom \u2014 those are the important things, not keeping up the computer. <\/p>\n
This is why large companies have a tech department, so their employees can call in panic when something goes wrong and so that the company can schedule appropriate changes around the job they\u2019re actually doing.<\/p>\n
But we freelancers are our own tech support and the companies that make the tools do not consider the fact that we want a tool to use, not a tech project that requires ongoing attention.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another problem that I\u2019m noticing with both tech tools and cars: they\u2019re homogenizing the way things work.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to be able to modify things so that they work best for me, but those who manufacture them seem to think they know better. And because they don\u2019t offer their systems in a way that makes it easy to change things, I have trouble getting around it.<\/p>\n
I am currently using a rental car and I admit that some of the new safety features \u2014 once I figure out how they work \u2014 do make things safer.<\/p>\n
But newer cars are so easy to drive that it\u2019s too easy to zone out while driving. As an example: my current car \u2014 which is 15-years-old and good for another 15, according to my mechanic \u2014 has a stick shift.<\/p>\n
Now I know those are going the way of the dinosaurs (and I don\u2019t mean they\u2019re going to become birds). The mechanical shifters required in older gas-powered cars aren\u2019t needed in electric ones. And gas-powered cars need to go.<\/p>\n
But something I\u2019ve noticed lately in my neighborhood is that almost everyone makes a \u201crolling stop\u201d at all the stop signs. And that\u2019s partly because they don\u2019t have to shift down to first when they stop; they can just put their foot lightly on the brake and then accelerate quickly.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s intentional, but as a pedestrian it drives me wild. Cars are large heavy machines that will do great harm if they hit someone. They should always come to a complete stop. The only vehicles that should do rolling stops at intersections are bicycles.<\/p>\n
Because I constantly have to shift gears when driving, I have to pay a lot more attention. And driving requires a lot of attention. Modern cars make it way too easy to let your attention wander.<\/p>\n
Now I don\u2019t actually think the solution is for everyone to drive a stick. I think the solution is a lot fewer cars and stricter traffic rules, with extremely low speed limits in areas with a lot of pedestrian traffic.<\/p>\n
I mean, I notice when I drive that even I have trouble paying attention to everything and that I am wont to drive a little too fast when I can. And that\u2019s with a car that requires more attention.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to get to here: we can control these things as a community of people, whether we\u2019re talking transportation or tech or public health.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t have to put up with some company\u2019s idea of how things should be.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s easy, but I am saying we need to think about ways to do it, just like we need to think about vaccines and public health and people staying home when they\u2019re sick so that we don\u2019t all get every disease out there.<\/p>\n
I would have loved to miss measles. And wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful to live in a world with ever-decreasing traffic deaths?<\/p>\n
Not to mention one where I get to decide what I want my tech to do.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure someone is going to tell me that there\u2019s no profit in the changes I want, so they won\u2019t happen. But it\u2019s time we stopped thinking like that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time for all of us to start thinking about how we\u2019d like to live and take steps toward making the world work like that.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the only way it will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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