Does technology help us save time or waste time?

Save time

1 of 14

by Debbie Robus

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Last spring, my husband's mother learned that her only brother was terminally ill. She lived in Arkansas - he in California. My husband's uncle had lost contact with his only daughter and wished to reconnect while he was still well enough to visit with her and convey some necessary information about his business affairs and his final wishes. Had this been even fifteen years ago, it might have been impossible to locate this woman... especially quickly. However, with technology... specifically satellite television, which brought WeTV into our home and a program called "The Locator," we were able to engage the services of an investigator who found this daughter within a matter of about two weeks. Again, technology came into play, aiding the investigator in combing through records and vital statistics via the Internet... and in corresponding with my husband about the results via e-mail. My husband's uncle was reunited with his daughter. Almost two months to the day later, he passed away. Once again, technology made quick work of many tasks. My husband's mother, an avid letter-writer, had handled many tasks in this manner, i.e. "I'll write letters to my sisters in Iowa and let them know what is happening." My husband's gentle suggestion was, "Let's e-mail your niece in Iowa and she can tell her mom and aunt." Correspondence with a funeral home in California could have taken days - or even weeks - via mail. Just a decade or so ago, phone calls back and forth across the country would have cost a small fortune. With cell phones and a national calling plan, the calls were virtually free. Utilizing cell phones, fax machines, computers, scanners, e-mail and the Internet, we were able to make things happen in short order. During the search for my husband's cousin, his mother wrote a letter to her and wanted to include a photo. She was not sure the letter said what she wished, so we sat together at the computer and edited the letter, creating it in Microsoft Word. I then scanned the photos she wished to send, so that she would still have her originals, and printed them AND the letter, which she signed and mailed to her niece. By the end of the week, she received a telephone call from her niece - the letter and photos had arrived.

When my niece was born in 1990, I spent hours photographing her growth... and countless dollars printing the pictures, then carefully labeling them and placing them in an album. Today, I am photographing HER baby with my digital camera and editing the photos almost instantly. No more waiting until the photos are printed to see if I got a good shot... I take a look as I go and instantly know if I need to shoot another. I can readily send these digital photos around the world to family and friends... and they can print their own copies on THEIR printers. No more writing or calling and saying, "I would like a copy of this photo or that"... others can instantly pick whichever ones they like and print them... and discard the rest! My grandmother makes some of the best homemade rolls I'll ever eat. She beats her dough by hand, and at 97 years of age, she still has firm upper arms to prove it! I have a mixer with dough hooks... and I "beat" my dough with them. I have to use other methods to keep my arms in shape, but my bread tastes almost as good as my grandmother's. I am thankful for my washing machine, clothes dryer, and dishwasher. I am thankful for refrigeration, television, DVDs that store more information than I can imagine, and cell phones that keep me connected and safe wherever I travel - even on my daily walk around the neighborhood. I am thankful for jets to get us from one end of the world to another in a matter of hours or days, lights that go on with the flip of a switch, and the fact that I was able to "talk" to friends who were serving in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan nearly every day via e-mail... and SEE them via photos and video transmissions. I am grateful that I can write my thoughts almost as fast as they come to me with the help of a keyboard... and I can catalog them on a hard drive and/or storage device for posterity. Thanks to technology, I understand there is even now a device that will digitally photograph your teeth and jaw bones at the dentist and eliminate the need for those annoying dental x-rays! And technological advances have already greatly improved the overall dental experience and eliminated much of the pain that was once involved. CT-scans, PET scans, MRIs and a myriad of other non-to-mildly-invasi ve procedures allow doctors to quickly and more accurately pinpoint the diagnosis of a myriad of illnesses, injuries, and diseases and treat them quickly - and often more successfully. Technology helps me save time. The problem I face is how to utilize the time I save! And that seems to be the proverbial $64,000 question these days...what DO we do with our "spare" time? For Type-A, workaholic sorts like me, the answer is probably to fill that time with more activities that utilize modern technology. For those who are a little less driven - but probably more sane - there is likely time for a good book, a walk in the park, quiet meditation, or even a restful nap! We may not be exactly wasting the extra time given us by technology, but we might need to take a look at what we are doing with it.

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