Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Just Ban Technology

Maybe the Mennonites and the Hutterites have it right. Just ban technology.

Every year we go to our cabin in the high Eastern Sierra Mountains. Plenty of trout, exploring old mines, ghost towns and petroglyphs - but No television, No radio, No Cell Phones, No Computer, No Internet, No Laptop, No access. No Technology. In fact, after 60 years we finally got a land line phone to that place because my wife's aunt and uncle are getting old and something might happen. Yes, at 10,000 feet plus, elevations that dwarf the popular, crowded Vermont and New England ski destinations I favored as a teen, THE CABIN is that remote.

Rather than replace human socializing by going one-on-one with insulating personal use products that promote antisocial behavior such as television, iPods or GameCubes or GameBoys, we begin to talk...and talk more. We get up with the sunrise and watch the stars at night searching for shooters and satellites in a sky lacking light pollution, and air pollution. There are no televisions, no cell phones, no internet...no connections, except our own. The Milky Way is as clear as can be.

By the end of two weeks and evening chats and entertainment over cards, backgammon and board games we return to the urban sprawl of LA or NYC vowing to put the television away.

That lasts about two weeks. Withdrawl symptoms force my children to return to miniclip.com and another session of popular runescape at: http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/.

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