November 16, 2010

Thoughts on Technology

Fine.  Maybe you get your perspective on life from the New York Times.  Me?  Cartoon movies.  I’m not ashamed.

(Skip ahead in the video 50 seconds to get to the point..)

As you know, I am an idiot when it comes to the latest, coolest, techy things.  I still don’t have a phone with data, we just got an i Pod..the list goes on.

But I do have some reason behind it, though it may seem ridiculous.  There is this part of me that views technology as a huge distraction.  And frankly, I’ll never be able to keep up with it anyway.  I know, I know, I sound like an 80 year old who talks about life “back in their day.”  But hear me out…

Pema Chodron, a Buddhist Nun who I think is seriously amazing, talks about how so frequently when we have even a moment in our day, instead of valuing that space (as annoyingly Boulder as that sounds) we run to the closest, easiest piece of technology to fill the gap.  In that split second stillness, we call a someone on our cell, we check our email again, we throw the headphones on.

And we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

I definitely see the value of technology and don’t believe any of it is inherently bad.  But I think it can be just as much of an addiction and distraction as all the worst culprits out there.

I guess something to shoot for when considering all the garbage I use is to learn to be mindful and intentional as opposed to not even recognizing I’m using it.  And hope to Buddha we don’t end up as out of touch as the humans in Wall e..