Issue 36.13
I will probably be accused of injecting religion into my column this week, but I can live with that if necessary. The reason is that the impetus for this idea came from a recent church lesson I taught in my congregation. It was all about the agency of man (and woman) and how we surrender that agency or freedom to choose, often willingly, by our choices. By extension, I have noticed how some people (including myself at times) get sucked into technology to the point that they become less productive, less involved in their own lives, education, families and opportunities to meet and serve others.
My particular (insert your vice here – be it obsession, addiction, compulsion, etc.) is computer card games. I often go for months at a time without playing so I guess it is not a true addiction. But when I do choose to play Freecell or Solitaire or Cribbage or Pinochle on my computer or cell-phone, I sometimes lose track of time or keep saying to myself “Just one more game and I will quit.” I know people who say the same thing about drinking or gambling or other addictive activities so it makes me think. I looked at my stats recently on Freecell and it tells me over the last 5 years I have won 5,115 games out of 5,116. (the one I lost is actually one my daughter played without my permission on my computer – just had to clarify that.) At an average of 2 minutes per game that comes out to over 10,000 minutes or nearly 170 hours. I probably should round that up to 200 hours since some games took quite a bit longer to solve – and that doesn’t cover the other kinds of games I have played.
If I had worked those hours it would have provided thousands of dollars to benefit my family. If I had used them to serve others, who knows how much good I could have done? Using it for education could have given me many more technical skills or understanding or ability to teach better. Choosing to spend it on my spiritual growth would have made a significant difference in my life. Spending it with my family might have been the most powerful thing I could have done with those hours since it affects not only me, but them and the relationships I have with them.
I notice others spending incredible amounts of time on games, or on-line chats, or facebook, or any number of other time consuming things that are not evil in themselves, but tend to blur our thinking and keep us from productive pursuits. Some of these activities do lend themselves to destructive content such as gambling, pornography or content that advocates evil or hateful content or actions. The one that seems to affect the most people is texting, twittering and associated concepts. I have noticed people taking an hour to text a conversation they could have had over the phone in about 3 minutes. That seems crazy to me, but my spending time on Freecell probably seems pretty crazy to them.
In any case, this is just a plea to think about how you spend your technology time and make decisions about what you really want in life and if what you are doing helps create that. It’s worth considering. And as always, remember to back up anything that is important to you.
Shaun McCausland has worked in the computer industry for over 32 years, 23 years of it locally with Bits ‘N’ Bytes and Musicomp and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation, service, training and repair. If you have questions you can reach him at 435-668-7118 or his website www.bitsnbytescomputers.com.