I Don’t Wear A Watch Anymore

I just noticed that it has been a few weeks since I have worn my watch and I am OK with that.

Let me stop you Millennials right there from rolling your eyes and explain this a little more. I have worn a watch everyday for 20+ years. I would look at this watch 30 times a days to keep reaffirming the date instead of memorizing it. All day long I ‘checked my watch’ to make sure I was ‘on time’. And yet, here I sit not even missing my old friend.

Change is a strange thing to notice as it is happening.

I come from a strong love/hate affair with technology. If I had these modern video games when I was a kid, I would still be living in my mother’s basement. I have at times fallen down the tech Rabbit Hole, but my inherent laziness stops me from staying on board that ship for very long. I mostly felt like the grumpy old dude driving around yelling at people who were on their phones.

I literally had a flip phone until September of last year.

I had piled up hundreds of minutes on my ‘Pay As You Go’ phone b/c I was averaging 9 minutes used/month. I figured the only real use for a fancy phone was if you happened to stumble upon Bigfoot and nobody would believe you unless you snapped a picture.

My wife was even worse.

She was a card carrying Luddite, she only had an Ipod because she loved her music so much. We felt the world passing us by and did not care that much. But a funny thing happened at work one day. I got a phone stipend b/c I needed to be available after hours. I  got my first smartphone and my wife found Candy Crush. We got dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era.

Now I blog, I Facebook, I Tweet, I have a Pinterest board (but I still don’t really get that one).

If you care about making money you have to speak the languages money uses. I still hate seeing everybody looking at their phone all the time, but I have begrudgingly embraced the inevitability of our changing world. I am amazed at my children’s innate ability to understand and master technology. It comes naturally to them because it is an integrated part of their world from day one.

I worry about their video game exposure the way my parents worried about my TV exposure.

In many ways it was that parallel between parental concerns and a child’s draw to technology that changed my perspective. I did not feel that TV rotted my brain, or that Heavy Metal made me worship the Devil. If anything I felt like TV was my friend who showed me a way bigger world then I would have found just wandering around my neighborhood. Maybe we live in exciting times and curmudgeons get left behind?

The rush of technological advance is both awesome and frightening.

1930’s Those kids and their ‘childhood’, working in the mines would do them good! 1940’s Just laying there in front of the radio all day, lazy I tell ya! 1980’s Kids are being raised by the Boob Tube, we’re all screwed! 1990’s They’re going to turn into video games robots if they aren’t careful! 2010’s It’s like they can’t be bothered to look up from their phones, I tell you this is the end! 2020’s Look at ’em just blarting* away on their blopkins*, we’re all screwed I tell ya!

It is a Brave New World and I guess I am saying I don’t mind dipping my toes into the pool.

I probably will not allow myself to get a BrainPal when somebody gets around to inventing them. (Old Man’s War is a great Sci-fi book, instant classic!) But I will pay attention enough to not become obsolete and secretly count my blessings that I will be gone before things get too weird. Now if I could only find a way to appreciate the terrible music that is coming out these days. Well, maybe one personal evolution at a time.

*(Note) blarting – v – and blopkins – n – are hereby trademarked by OthalaFehu Industries.