Paper vs. The Computer

Do you remember when computers became available to the general public and you didn't need to build an addition on your home to have one? How it was touted that we would soon be a paperless society?

Well I don't know about you but I have a long file of computer printouts that need to be saved in case of some computer failure wipes out my life. I can't keep track of my passwords. When I need to make a new one their requirements are so rigid that my account is so secure I can't even get into it.

Now you can get a phone that is a handheld computer, text calls now outnumber phone calls, you can take pictures, watch tv and a whole list of things that I don't even know about. My phone takes pictures (lousy ones no less) and that's it. I like it that way.

I'm a paper person. I write lists. It's the only way I can keep track of things. If it's not written on the calender, it doesn't exist. I make lists of what meals we will be eating in the next two weeks, then make my grocery list from that list. I know I could have a PDA in my phone and keep my life tracked in there. But then I have to get my phone out, sign in, and look. In my mind that's a waste of time. Plus, I know me, I won't just look at the calender. I'll check my email, read my favorite blogs, read an interesting article that caught my eye and all of a sudden an hour has gone by. Right now I can look at the calender in the morning to see whats going on for the day. Yeah, I know when someone wants to set something up you have to talk to me at home so I can check the calender but if your really can't call me later just leave a message on my answering machine and I'll check when I'm home and let you know.

I love to read. There is nothing like holding a book in your hand and travelling through the story. So everyone says "you need a Kindle". Nope sorry, I love the paper. I don't have to worry about charging it, dropping it and spilling my coffee on it. If I lose my bookmark I just fold the corner down. (I heard that groan from the anti corner folding crowd). Check out this link on more of why I'm just a go to the library or local bookstore kinda girl. http://www.dailydiatribes.com/?p=870 Hope I did that right, it's my first link.

So call me old fashioned. I'm not a techno phobe, I'm just not interested. I like it simple, and that's hard to accomplish today. I've found I waste a lot of time with all these time savers.

Oh, and many years ago my computer geek husband wrote me a simple program to keep track of all my phone numbers and addresses. I only used it reluctantly because, well, he wrote it for me and I didn't want to hurt his feelings. But I found it was great, he wrote it exactly for what I wanted. I still use it, even though he wants to "upgrade" it and add all these fancy bells and whistles. No thanks, it works, nothing needs upgrading as far as I'm concerned. The whole thing fits on two floppy disks (remember them) as a back up. Now I have to waste a cd for back up since my floppy drive died. I still have my paper address book because if my laptop isn't on I don't want to bother starting it up to look up a number. Did I mention my laptop is ancient?

As far as I'm concerned the best invention ever was the post it note.