What's Your Relationship with Your Computer?

Aloha!

What's your relationship with your computer? When I say computer, I mean desktop, laptop, ipad, iphone, etc., whatever gizmo you use to do your computing.

Over the years I've worked with a wide variety of clients with various attitudes towards their computers. Sometimes the attitudes and abilities mirror the generation of the user. At other times, personality is clearly in play. Sometimes a person is just having fun playing with a new toy. In other situations, a person's machine is highly leveraged to maximize productivity in the workplace. It's merely a tool. Like all relationships, ours with the computer evolves intellectually, emotionally, and physically.

However we think, feel, and interact with computers, I can say one thing we all have to face: they are here to stay, in some form or another. And more than that, they are becoming ingrained into our lives in ways only science fiction writers have imagined. The trends - towards ubiquitous Internet access, moving data processing to the Cloud (the Internet), going wireless (including electrically charging devices wirelessly), packing more features and functions onto smaller and smaller platforms, open source software, smart homes, smart cars, etc. - mean we are and shall be e-meshed (sorry for the pun) in the unfolding of this computing evolution.

What does all this intimate contact with electronics bode for our health, physical and psychological? Time will tell. But like most tools and toys, what we do with things reflects our innate humanity; if for example we have addictive tendencies, then yes, we may become addicted to email and Facebook and online gaming. Looked at from another angel, we can also recall what Einstein wisely said: Our technology has surpassed our humanity. That's something to contemplate and give us pause as we witness how technology affects our own lives and the lives of those around us.

Another question to pose: Who's in charge around here, the humans or the machines? By in charge, I mean dictating how we think and feel about our lives. I suspect if we begin to feel enslaved by computers, we will rebel in some fashion-hopefully in a way that's more about doing some inner work with our thoughts and feelings than by taking sledge hammers to our gizmos.

So perhaps the challenge for us is to find ways to get some space around our involvement with computers. Perhaps this could be as simple as taking more breaks from them at work; by taking three breaths before replying to an email; by turning off the iphone for one day (scary thought?); by sending our kids outside to play instead of letting them spend hours instant messaging friends...

Anyways, just some stuff to consider if you feel, like I do at times, that we're taking computers a little more seriously than we should, and at the expense of plenty of other valuable things in life. I'm grateful that they provide me a means to a living, but I don't expect them to provide a means to a meaningful life.

Wishing you akamai and enlightened computing!