Those of you who frequent my daily blog know that I recently bought a bunch of new computer components and did some major upgrades/renovations to my computer. Well, as I stated in that particular blog entry, I did indeed lose the whole of my old hard drive. For some God-awful reason, I didn’t use any forethought and I didn’t back-up my old files or any of my old programs that I had become so accustomed to. Honestly, I didn’t think that I’d run into the problems that I did (that were minor, really, but still problems). As I also stated in that blog entry, some people would see this as the end of the world…but is it really?
Perhaps the most devastating loss for me was the loss of my Graduate Level work that I’ve been doing for the past six months at Rutgers University. I had a lot of good work in my recent papers (some of which I planned on getting published). I still have the print copies of all of my work, so I do have the work itself and that is somewhat consoling. But there were other, equally troubling losses: the completely reworked and up-to-date listing of the Alumni Members of my Fraternity (many of you know that I volunteer as an Advisor to my former undergraduate chapter), the beginnings of some of my freelance writing projects (including writing that I was going to send to publishing companies and writing that was strictly for magazines), and some business-related files that I was saving (like my resume).
Needless to say, losing these files is a good kick in the pants, but after a few hours of reflection I had to stop and tell myself, “Hey, it’s just a computer and they are just files, idiot!”
And that is what I would like to reflect on for a bit – the fact that many people who do lose such important documents see it as the end of their world and have difficulty going on from that point. Not going on with their lives, but continuing to be as creative as they were before the loss of the files. I am not going to bash these people straight out because I don’t know their lives or their files or what they were/are working on, but I think that the very existence of such a sadness at the loss of saved work tells a lot about what makes humans tick these days.
When I thought back about my own distress, I realized that the major conundrum that I was annoyed with was the fact that I lost a lot of man hours (from a lot of different people, not just me) with the loss of those files. One of my roommates volunteered much of his free time putting together a written copy of that Alumni List, for example, and now that work – which was transposed onto the computer – is lost. Can it be redone? Of course. However, it seems as though we’ve basically just taken a giant leap backwards with our efforts.
Getting back to my current point – we live in a technological world where it seems as though more and more of our daily tasks and routines are assisted by computers or take place thoroughly through computers. For instance, many people wake up and after using the bathroom, check their e-mail, make their plate of breakfast while checking their PDA for the day’s events, return to the computer to send out some morning e-mails, and then it’s off to work with a headset on in the car so you can make phone calls and get a jump on the work day. I don’t see this as a totally bad way for our society to be progressing, but we should take note of the “other” things out there that make this life fun, too.
For instance, about three months ago I started walking on the local boardwalk partly for the health benefits, but mostly to see the tranquility of the ocean as it laps up against the beach. This, of course, was before the summer season! Now it’s mostly filled with tourists, but it’s still an act of getting out into the open and enjoying what’s out there.
But far be it from me to sound like a stickler for getting out into nature – trust me, I’m no green-blooded person! There are other things that we give less time and attention to in this life than just the beauty of the world. One of my former loves (before the advent of the internet and my creation of TBL so many years ago) was reading. I used to love to sit down and read book after book. I wholeheartedly believe that my reading has helped me in countless ways and in numerous situations that I’ve been presented with. However, once I started to get involved in this internet and technology stuff, I noticed that the amount of time I spent reading dwindled until it seemed as though I was only reading when necessary for school-related purposes (and not always even doing that).
Sometime this past Christmas (that would be December 2003) I started reading again with a vigor. This was partially brought on by the fact that I spent a month at my parent’s house and was away from my personal computer and partially brought on by my re-reading of one of my favorite books/trilogies – The Lord of the Rings (hence the name of this site). Since then I’ve managed to read about a book a week – sometimes it takes two weeks if I get bogged down in work – and it has really brought back a sense of satisfaction to my daily life.
There are a lot of things that are equally as satisfying as the online experience – and we as a society should look into them. Again, this is no condemnation of the folks who spend a good deal of their time online (I am still one of them), but it is a call for people of all techno lifestyles to pull away from the computer every now and again to do something that will stimulate their mind in other ways.
For me that stimulation came in the form of walking on the beach and reading (among other things that are more physical in nature such as going to the gym and swimming). However, for you it might be as simple as going to the mall with your friends or even writing a letter to a loved one instead of sending an e-mail. Whatever it is that brings you that mental feeling of satisfaction, make sure that you explore it – because your hard drive might be the next one to crash!
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