It seems like every few days there’s some program on my phone, Nintendo Switch, or the work computer pestering me for updates.
And while at the core of it, I know and understand that these updates are usually geared toward smoothing out a user’s experience or making the program run more efficiently – I’m torn between turning off notifications altogether and/or possibly authorizing automatic updates.
Neither of those options appeals to me and to be honest, I’m perfectly fine with ignoring the updates until the device forces my hand and tells me the equipment won’t work until I update it.
However, you can’t do that with good old analog technology.
For example, we still have a landline phone system for the paper.
I noticed that the trend as of late is to change to a digital or cellular phone line.
Sure, we’ve explored those options, but they’re virtually useless without a continual source of power.
That means if we’re without power for a few days like when Winter Storm Uri hit or a hurricane creates a lot of damage, we’ll be out of commission overall anyway.
I’m definitely not going to worry about anything else besides my personal cellphone for those days if I can help it.
And we do have a generator for emergencies, I don’t see the need to use it beyond keeping the refrigerator, ceiling fans, and water well going – the air conditioner or heater is a luxury depending on the time of year we’re in anyway.
Plus, during times of emergency or disaster, all the important people have our cellphone numbers anyway and I’m always tapped into Facebook for updates.
Well, social media and all of the pertinent alert and safety systems for our county, too.
Luckily those systems don’t require much updating on our end and we can access them rather easily.
Regardless, it wasn’t that long ago when landline phones were integrated into those safety systems and were used with messaging systems to get the word out about natural disasters, and emergencies or even for parents to know what was going on in their respective school districts.
While technology advances, it also seems to open up a new can of worms with its unique problems, too.
The worst part is that we’re often left at the mercy of such progress and I really noticed this when everything came to a screeching halt thanks to COVID-19.
I think it mostly worked in our favor back then, but I just didn’t factor in the possibility of the dependency growing as time wore on until now.
The hardest part is reconciling technology progress while trying to keep our infrastructure on track to support said advances.
I guess that means we’ll have to transition from our old-fashioned landline at some point in the near future – especially since we might be the last family on our side of the road to have one.
It’s just part of the experience of getting older and having everyday life evolve and move forward.
Eventually and sometimes unfortunately, we have to move forward with it – even if we don’t want to!
