How close to becoming a ‘crackberry’ am I?

Not to sound like a person with ages of experience to give me perspective, but I am twenty… almost 21. My life, even if it doesn’t compare to the 70 year olds who saw the shuttle on the moon as a far fetched idea, does still offer me a distinctive time line inside the development of technology. I am a sucker for technology. We’ve had a computer in my house since grade three when the internet was DOS based and it was only used to email our family in Africa. Typing in the commands to pull up a game before the commonplace GUI was something I always left up to my brother who was the computer gru from day one.

Leaving the days of the computer in the basement far behind, I’m sitting here seven computers later with my prized laptop writing a blog post in my living room. I love the newest addition to my computer family. It’s a beautiful piece of machinery it by far the panicle of the technology legacy of this house.

Development is good. I have a memory card for my digital camera that is three times the size of our first hard drive. But what are the consequences? Other than the huge monetary cost of all these gadgets, what else are we loosing to this new lifestyle?

I check my email at least once a day, if not several times. I constantly listen to music, and have it with me wherever I go in some form or another. I’ve had a Palm pilot that went everywhere with me for about two years, and I do have a cell phone. I usually carry a digital camera. In the grand scheme of things, I am not doing to bad on the scale of obsessive uses of technology. But should I really be gauging myself against the crackberries of the world? Is the level of computerization in my life healthy in any way?

There have been studies done that say a constant involvement with technology (blackberries, cell phones, constant emailing, internet ect. Can reduce the average persons IQ by 10%. Pot only reduces the IQ by 4% (Canadian studies). Technology in some cases has been shown to increase distractibility and reduce attention spans. It even hampers creativity.

Don’t get me wrong I am not against technology, but I am dangerously close to, if not already, a hypocrite.

I would love to go even a week without any technology. No emails. No eBay. No CTV news net. No music. No online banking. No laptop to type notes (or to occupy me when I am bored) in class. No spell check to write papers with. No recording studio. No weather network. No cell phone for ‘emergency’ calls. How much time do I spend looking at a screen a day, regardless of my reasons? I could be writing a paper, researching, emailing a friend, chatting on msn, shopping, learning, listening to music, watching missed episodes of scrubs… but the idea of a clean break scares me. What would I do with all that spare time? Finally learn Spanish maybe…

If I added up all the time I spend with media of one kind or another during the week, including music, I am sure I would be out rightly shocked.

So the time issue aside how much money have I spent on technology in my life? I really don’t want to know. I am sure it rivals the amount I have spent on instruments easily. I really think, even though I would rather stay in my ignorance, that this just might not be using my time and money wisely.

So as I am searching ebay for an iPod, I’m faced with just one more chance to compromise to the seemingly inevitable computerizing of my life. Do I really want to have a tiny computer with me everywhere I go? I already carry my computer with me to school all the time, which unfortunately weighs a lot more than my Palm. But what would I become with a Laptop, cell and an iPod?

For me this all comes down to control. I hate text messaging. I hate when people answer their cell phones mid sentence, or even during a conversation. I like to keep my technology under my thumb. The idea of being always accessible to anyone who has my number or email address scares me. Anyone who knows me knows that it is impossible to reach me on my phone unless I am expecting a call or by some strange fluke have left my ringer on.

Well at least I am not a full fledged victim of my generation, I am still holding out on the blackberry.

Who knows what I will become. Maybe I will achieve my dream of living up north for two months away from every thing based on electricity. That clean cut at this point seems impossible if I can’t go more than two days without checking my mail.