I owe my livelihood to technology and I love the raw capability it offers us as a tool, but I fear it a bit more than most people do. It’s a tool, but it’s not quite a hammer, because a hammer doesn’t seduce you into sitting around lonely in your underwear for 6 hours at a stretch clicking on youtube videos and refreshing Twitter. I fear technology because I fear that bad feeling I get after a three day XBox binge I go through every year around the holidays. I fear technology not because I think it’s evil, but because it’s too easy to start clicking and never stop, even if the stream of data starts to go from meaningful to useless after the top 5%.
Reading articles like this has become a common pastime of mine in order to re-affirm my choices lately in how I use technology. Reading an article like this from a blogger I grew up with and respect is even more powerful. Heck, Brian even commented on my blog once. He’s one of the good guys. This resonated a lot…
Thoreau had to abandon work and friends to live simply, but he was not against it. He just had no choice at the time, given the technology at hand. I think we–and information workers like programmers, designers and writers especially–are capable right now of living a fantastic life that marries the wild vitality that Thoreau experienced at Walden with the better parts of civilized living. This is a life that Ted, if he were still in his cabin, could be envious of–if we could only muster the discipline to get away from the noise.
Among the trees in my cabin in New Hampshire, my drive home each day is on an old beaten road with no traffic. I live among nature and work at my dream job. I’ve never been happier. Disconnecting has only strengthened that happiness.
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