We like to think personal electronics our servant, but it only serves those who sell it to us. I wish companies would stop doing that. I paid for my computer to serve me. Such self serving technology which considers a checkbook above any actual human need, may be in danger of being a requirement to modern living.
The technology itself decides what gets sold to us, based on prior profits. Some of us still aren't impressed you know. I'm using a computer to write because it's near impossible to find a typewriter today. I am probably foolish to want an internet access PC, but I can only afford a dialup connection on my family budget. I need the computer to keep me abreast of job openings. My competition for the job is getting their information faster if I don't own one. One college my kid looked into actually required a laptop computer for each student. Weather I like it or not this PC thing is here to stay, so here I am using it. I know I'm going to eventually miss the hundreds of dollars I had to myself before the computer came home though.
I've kept my wall phone because I can't afford the tiny speaker, have-to-carry-it allover battery phone or the membership subscriptions they offer me. When my wall phone breaks, I may not be able to replace it anymore. The internet is no longer offering decent service to people on a dialup connection, since most have upgraded to higher speeds. So using the internet gets a lot of "56k warnings", and makes using it more difficult for folks without much cash to get access. I'm no executive businessman, so it isn't a life altering issue in my case. But it does show how the internet is becoming a private club, grudgingly 'granting membership' to less than up-to-date-PC owners. Yet much of all American life is now requiring a computer access.
The innocent obsession for buying a desktop computer turned into a case of buying the newest technology and upgrades or suffering consequences later. Almost an unwritten law, created by our spent consumer dollars. How powerful should we let our dollars allow these companies to become? Remember the video game industries started out as a hobby in somebody's basement. Now they're everywhere, and even affecting lawmaking; The GTA Hot Coffee scandal and electronic rights for music downloading come to mind.
Security programs prove that no computer is secure. The cell phone, computer and G.P.S. systems that store personal information are foolish. I have photos and checkbooks I can lock up in my house. My burglar alarm isn't a part of my computer, but it does connect to some stranger's, I'm sure. What happens if somebody who runs an automotive GPS system can steal cars they protect? How many potential psycho-types should have access to photos of my children? What happens if an electronic-based banking system gets hacked? I can't help worrying about these ideas.
One day a Bureau for Electronic Control may decide there is too much technology for 'the masses' to keep control over independently. Whenever there is a huge amount of money surrounding something like technology, the government is going to get involved. We can blame ourselves for this. The Amish say "what you take into your hand, you take into your life". I don't know an Amish man with a cell phone, but his farm will probably get a dish tower for one soon, since so many of us have bought them.
I decided there's an unsought cost, a financial liability from paying for so many electronics or their upgrades. I don't ever want any of these things to 'tell me' how to live, although judging by the sheer bulk of their effects, it's happening anyway.
