The Net

So after a very frustrating class period with a certain dominant person owning the floor and distracting conversation, I thought oh to drift off into the orphid net...

Most of the time I think that we are going to miss out on something when technology provides a reality preferable to my "regular" life. This makes sense, but what do I do after dinner, and I am sitting around my house? I plurk and I have a blast, and then I check facebook, and then maybe I call a friend, and later on call my girlfriend on skype. So being an outdoor recreation major, and an outdoor enthusiast, and a social person, how can I be so captivated by these impersonal forms of interaction? What does this mean for the future of the people that proclaim their love or preference for such technologically aided interaction? In this evolved form of interaction I don't need to deal with inconveniences or people that distract me, there is no insincerity, it is a simple matter of choice and this is the beauty, the compeling argument for technology. All people love choices. To be exposed to new and "radical" ideas, to meet people I may never interact with normally, and to have such sweeping control over these interactions.

This evolution of technology is partly why I think my weekend in the Skagit with my homestead friend was so rewarding. My "real" interactions with people are filtered just like my plurks. I visit the Skagit Valley maybe once a month, and have some outdoor adventure (climbing, hiking, or snowboarding) and stay in my friend's house with the wood stove, fresh eggs, and no high speed internet or cell reception, and then after a couple of slow days in the country I come back to Bellingham, refreshed, but excited to get back to the routine of student life. The alterity of these escapes, would not be nearly as valuable if not for their temporary and voluntary nature. My friends in the Skagit Valley do not experience the freedom of my transient reality, and suffer the difficulties associated with tracking down people on a home phone to talk, or using a dial up modem. Things move at a slower pace in the mountains, and this is nice to unwind from my hectic life, but if it were the other way around and I lived in the Skagit Valley with brief visits in the city, I know I would become anxious and disconnected from parts of my life that depend on technology (ie my fiance, family, current events, and school). Being a firm believer in the value of change, and a bit of a romantic, I think that technology will continue to bring a higher quality of life, and by maintaining the perspective of life in the Skagit Valley or even in the classroom with distracting individuals, we can see how technology will serve best, and fit into our lives without taking over.