Technology: A Love/Hate Relationship by Lorrie Orr

 

October's Prompt: Technology vs analog. How do you handle the tension? What social media platforms or web-based tools do you use to ensure your work is read by others? Do you find it difficult to manage technology?

 

Photo by Lorrie Orr - The last bouquet of roses cut this week from my garden

Typing 9. I sat in front of a fully manual typewriter. Early technology, and faster than writing by hand. Typing came easily, and the teacher said I had strong and accurate fingers – from practicing the piano. I learned to center titles by counting the letters and spaces, dividing that number by two, finding the center of the paper, then pushing the space bar to find the correct place to begin my line of text. Whew! It was a lot of work. Technology for writers has come a long way since then!

Now technology threatens to take over so much of our lives. I have a love/hate relationship with it. Very glad for some things, not so much for others. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Love

My Surface Pro 8 computer. It's a few years old, but works wonderfully, especially after the updates are installed. I like it because:

    * It’s small enough to tuck into my carryon or personal bag when travelling.

2.      * It acts as a real computer in that it stores lots of documents and photos.

3.      * It’s easy to pack around the house if I want to write in the living room, the kitchen, or my studio/office.

Hate

When technology doesn’t work as planned. I get so frustrated when I seem to be doing the right thing and it doesn't work the way I want it to. However, I’ve learned that, like most humans, phones and computers benefit from being turned off for awhile, then re-started. And make sure the updates are installed!

Love

My I-Phone 17. I love it because:

1.      * It keeps me in touch with those I love, via texts – group or individual, phone calls, and Facetime.

2.      * It has a great camera. I have a larger camera that I like to use around home, and I had a smaller digital camera for travelling. Actually, I had two of those smaller cameras, but they were kind of finicky and I decided to replace the last one with the newest I-Phone. It’s got a great zoom and takes good photos, although I think my larger camera still beats it.

 I        * I control my notifications and have only the phone and text notifications enabled. If you email or message me another way, I check those regularly, but I don't want a barrage of interruptions in my day.

Hate

Generative Artificial Intelligence. It’s mere artificial plagiarism. I have briefly, very briefly done a few experiments with AI and I don’t like the results. They make me feel squeamish. So I’ve taken a firm stand on AI. Why?

1.     * Because it takes away from the humanity of thinking and working through problems. Walking helps me when I have a thorny problem to work through, or an activity like dishwashing or folding laundry that keeps my body busy and lets my mind wander. Plot problems and ideas flow when my mind is in neutral and I often get my best ideas during a walk.

2.      * Because it uses so many natural resources, like land and water. Here's a link to a Canadian Government site about the issue. 

3.      * Because human creativity is a gift from God – because creativity is part of the image of God in humans – although I struggle to draw and paint, I will not resort to AI to create images for my work. Generative AI lacks soul, whether in writing or in art.

As with all love/hate relationships, there are qualifiers and extenuating circumstances. I am thankful for the amazing abilities God has given the human mind to solve problems and make life easier and more stable. Without modern antibiotics my husband would have died of pneumonia. Without natural gas, I would chopping wood and feeding a wood stove to stay warm in the winter. Technology is all around us, from the wooden spoon I use to stir soup on the stove to the elaborate computers used to power our world. Humans benefit from technology. But let's not lose our humanity. 

Lorrie Orr writes from Vancouver Island, BC.

She is the author of one book, a memoir, Life is Short but Wide,

and has a number of other books waiting to be worked on,

as well as a vast amount of writing in her head. Unfortunately, technology doesn't help her sit at her desk to write.

She also writes on Substack and her personal slice of life blog.

I am a Noob. Is that buzzworthy? by Connie Inglis

I must be honest at the start of this post; I struggled with knowing how to respond to the prompt for this month. As one who just started writing seriously, I have no, 'How To' tips to share and no new resource that I wish I had when I first started out. But then yesterday I got a brainwave when I thought about selecting three words I didn't know (which I believe was the Holy Spirit helping me when I couldn't help myself).

It has only been in the past four or five years that I've started to intentionally write, so I decided to look at new words that have appeared in the dictionary in the past five years and implement a number of them in a piece of writing. What fun this has been. It also helped me realize that resources in technology have definitely advanced opportunity in the writing world--exciting but also a little scary.

The following piece of writing is also an example of the genre I love to write in: poetry. And in a continuation of my focus on writing sonnets over the summer, I have taken the sonnet, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and tweaked it to reflect life and relationships in today's day and age. (This is meant to be fun so I hope no one is offended by my use of this poem.)

How do I meet thee? Let me count the ways

How do I meet thee? Let me count the ways.
I browse the web, its depth and breadth and height
With laptop, smartphone, phablet all in sight
The infomania shocks my mind--no grace.
My drive to meet thee haunteth every day's
Femtosecond, by wifi day or night.
I scroll on facebook, as men strive for right;
Looking for selfies, photos tagged in praise.
I question friends with passion put to use
From past loves and with ebullient faith.
I tweet, twitter, retweet yet seem to lose
All hope. Then bestie texts--I hold my breath,
And laugh for lost is found; now I must choose,
Courage to connect or dream unto death.

Oh the Joys of Technology! Tracy Krauss

I wonder sometimes how I managed before technology took over my writing life. I used to fill notebooks with handwritten scenes and stories - always double spacing, of course. Inevitably, most pages were filled with scratches, arrows, and even numbered inserts. Using a typewriter wasn't a whole lot better. I remember literally filling a wastebasket with crumpled pages just like in the movies and whiteout was definitely my all time favorite invention.

I was reminded recently just how good I have it these days. It all started about two weeks ago when I went back to my teaching job after a very productive summer of writing. The very first thing that happened was a computer crash of the worst kind on my school computer. I lost all of my files (I know, I know... I should have been better at backing them up...) The only up side was I got a brand new computer out of the deal - not that thrilling when I already had all my classwork prepared and would also have to go through the process of resetting all my networks etc.

As if this wasn't enough, about that same time I noticed some very strange things happening on my computer at home. I was getting a lot of random 'pop-ups' (mostly ads), my computer was running at an extremely slow pace, and I got several messages from people saying they suspected my twitter account had been hacked. Sure enough, it seemed that somehow, somewhere, my computer had been compromised. Fortunately, my son-in-law is a bit of an IT guy, so he came to my rescue. Unfortunately, his advice is to 'nuke and pave' (a techie term for wipe everything and start over...) Until he can get to that, I'm not to go online on that computer.

The story doesn't end there, however. My personal laptop, which is by computer standards, a dinosaur, refused to connect to our wireless internet. I spent several days with only my phone for internet access. (Imagine!) Again, son-in-law to the rescue and I'm now using my laptop, but it is oh-so-slow and will simply not do everything I am used to doing.

With all this techno-trauma I haven't had any time to write, let alone keep up with the amount of sharing online that I normally do. In some ways, I've rather enjoyed it. I had an excuse for not spending so much time in front of the computer! There is finally some light at the end of this tunnel, however. Our work IT guy retrieved all my files and has transferred them to my new work computer, which I will also be able to take home and use if needed. My ever faithful son-in-law is going to 'fix' my home computer next weekend when he has time.

And just in time, too. The Inscribe conference coming in less than two weeks and I'm doing a workshop on blogging. The irony of my lack of internet access hasn't been lost on me. My personal blog has been sorely neglected these past few weeks. Still, it serves as a reminder that I need to count my blessings, even those that come with megs of ram.

Reading the new way - Violet Nesdoly

It's only been about four months since I downloaded the (free) Kindle app onto my iPod touch. In that time reading on this handy little device has found a very secure place in my reading habits. Here are some reasons I love this new way of reading:

1. Adjustable font size
Whenever I tell people I read on this 2 1/2  x 4 1/2 inch gadget with its 2 x 3 inch display, they ask: Isn't it hard to see? My answer: Not at all.

Unlike when you read other materials on the iPod and need to adjust the tiny font size with a finger motion on the touch screen, the Kindle program comes with five pre-set font sizes. You can choose the size that's comfortable and never worry about it after that.

2. Backlit
I can read in bed - and with the lights out! However, it is hard to read  on a backlit display in bright sunlight.

3. Highlightable and Notable
I stumbled across the highlight and notation function quite by accident. During the reading of my first Kindle book, I noticed once in a while as I was "turning a page" (done by sweeping a finger across the screen to the left to go forward, to the right to go backward), a symbol. Under my swooping finger appeared what looked like a magnifying glass. When I lifted my finger from the screen the word from under the glass remained selected with dots - handles - attached. I discovered I could then touch those handles, stretching the selection to cover many words and choose to "Note" or "Highlight".

If I chose "Note" the keyboard appeared and I could type and save some text to identify the spot. If I chose "Highlight" the selected text turned yellow as if I had used a highlighter on it.

 You can later find the spots marked this way in 'bookmarks' (appears as a book icon in a toolbar when you touch the bottom of the screen). 

4. Easy to save my spot
Dog-ear the page by touching the right upper corner of the screen. (Un-dog-ear it by touching it again.) The program also 'remembers' the farthest place you have read or paged to in the book.

5. Many books with me all the time
I love never being without a book. I can tuck this virtual library into a tiny pocket of my smallest handbag. My little iPod book collection has helped me pass the time while waiting in restaurants, at the doctor's office, whenever I have a minute to read. It includes writings by Andrew Murray, George Muller, G. K. Chesterton, Charles Spurgeon, and ten classic children's novels.

No, my little reading device doesn't smell like a book, or feel like a book. But I have grown quite fond of it anyway.

- By Violet Nesdoly
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Website: www.violetnesdoly.com

• Personal blog promptings   
• Writerly blog Line upon line
• Daily devotions for children Bible Drive-Thru
• Daily devotions for adults: Other Food: daily devo 
• A poem portfolio