I spent more money than I wanted to upgrading my computer today and it wasn’t entirely by choice.  I opted not to buy a Mac because I didn’t want to spend that much on a computer but that didn’t prevent me from feeling a bit crazed because of how much it cost.
Some of the Apple Fan boys are shaking their heads now because Macs tend to last longer than PCs and consequently if you amortize the cost of the unit over several years the cost goes down and satisfaction goes up, or so they argue.
There is some truth to that but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to put out a chunk of change to get that sort of satisfaction.
This time around I couldn’t quite bring myself to spend that kind of cash because I have too many other expenses to worry about but neither could I buy a basic machine because we are slaves to technology.
The Slave’s Life For Me
I really would prefer to be singing “A Pirate’s Life for Me” because it is more fun. Reminds me of being a kid at Disneyland, Pirates Of The Caribbean has always been one of my favorite rides and let’s face it, that is a good life.
Disney pirates get to pillage, plunder and chase wenches and that has to be better than being a slave to technology. Has to be more fun than worrying about whether your hard drive is going to die and if you have backed everything up.
Better than worrying about whether you have learned all the ins and outs of the new computer and the frustration you feel when you realize that even though you are tech savvy you are missing something.
But if people call you The Jack Steiner, author of the mighty dad blog, TheJackB you know that you can’t just give into frustration  and defenestrate your computer, new or old nor can you find a good person to defenestrate.
You do know that only good people get defenestrated, it is like that line in Shawshank where Red tells Andy everyone is innocent.
But that is neither here nor there because the fact is that even though I have a Smith-Corona typewriter I am not going to pull it out of the closet, nor am I going to give up my cellphone for an old rotary phone.
In large part it is because those tools can’t compete with the modern ones we have access too.
Technology Has Enslaved Us All
When we talk about the need to work smarter and more effectively we’re talking about using technology because it makes us faster, more productive and more efficient.
And when you grow accustomed to some things you are loathe to go back to the way things used to be.
If my old computer were a pet I might have had to consider putting it down because that poor guy had cataract filled eyes that clouded its vision and a busted hip that made it impossible walk.
So instead of bounding up and down the stairs like he once did he just peed on the floor and laid in it because all of the other options had been removed.
Fortunately that wasn’t the case so you won’t see me shed a tear or talk about how much I’ll miss that my pal because the attachment is different and frankly I am pissed off that it decided to die now.
Doesn’t it know I just paid to move into a new place and that I have a Bar Mitzvah to cover.
Fucking computer.
I know exactly how you feel. I am a Mac user myself, but I have more computers and tech devices than I can use. I just bought a new iPad mini, not because I really need it. But, because I believed that my life would be easier if I bought it. I’m not sure if I was sober when I bought it… well, of course I was. But it feels that I need to have all those tech devices because I just don’t want to be offline if something “bad” happens to one of them.
Hi Jens,
Why did you pick the mini and not the full size?
It was because it’s a lot easier to hold with just one hand. I discovered that I read a lot better on the Mini. And it’s easier to carry, but that was not the reason 🙂
That’s why I have three. Because when mine went dead, I freaked. FREAKED. Both times. Now I won’t suffer through this. I am a slave, a big slave.
I get it. I am going to take the old unit in and have it fixed so that it is available just in case. Of course, that leaves me with just two and not three. 😉
Like it or not, technology marches on and sweeps us along for the ride. If we want to keep up at work and even with friends and family, we have to be technologically up to date and, no, that darned computer doesn’t much care what’s happening in your life. If it wants and upgrade, it wants it now! 😉
Hi Kat,
Yeah, damn computers don’t cooperate very well now do they. Blast. 😉
You can have the best tools in the world, and ome do, and you still have to push “publish” and work for the sale. Even the most expensive models can’t do that for you. Or can they? 🙂
Hi Betsy,
Give me the greatest tennis racket and I still can’t beat most pro tennis players. However give me a a jar of Ex-Lax and a guarantee that the aforementioned pro will eat my famous Ex-Lax brownies and I will promise a fighting chance. 😉
I’m a slave to Mac. I’ve been using them for years and years and I don’t think I could go back to pc. Also, I don’t see all the reasons. They’re not adding up to 69 somehow.
Hi Elizabeth,
I do like Macs, but the cost is prohibitive, at least for now. Trust me, there are 69 reasons here, some of them are written in code.
A computer that doesn’t respect an impending Bar Mitzvah tab is, indeed, no friend. 😛