Editor's Note

Addicted to technology
WINDHAM
7/23/2010

By Stephanie Grinnell

With recent storms rolling through cutting power supplies, I have come to realize I may be addicted to technology.

As I write this editorial, thunderstorms are rolling through and I have disconnected all major appliances from their respective electrical sockets, a habit passed down through generations of my family during thunderstorms. Lucky for me, I have a fully charged laptop to work on while I wait for the storms to pass.

I often work outside The Independent Windham office and use email and my cell phone to arrange interviews and submit stories. But when I don't have access to technology, I feel completely out of touch, whether it's for work or personal reasons. I find I can't leave the house for more than 10 minutes without my cell phone in hand in case someone needs to contact me.

When did this change? When I was a child, I would come home from school to a handwritten note on the kitchen table saying when my parents would be home from work and what I could do in the meantime. (Usually something super-fun like homework or laundry.) I didn't need to call my parents at work and tell them I was home and find out when to expect them.

I used to only have a cell phone for travel emergencies and so my kids and husband could keep in touch since we all have busy schedules. Now, I use it more than I use a landline, for everything from work to calling family to making appointments to paying bills. Like many people, I considered disposing with my landline phone but considering the state of cell service in Maine, it's just not feasible. There are still areas where there is no signal at all, my house being one of them.

And then there is Internet. It's hard to imagine what life was like without Internet access at this point. I know there are still a few hold-outs without Internet but I don't think there are many who don't know what it is. Some without Internet have made it a personal choice and others use local resources such as the public library for limited Internet use. But not at my house.

There are times when there is no power and no Internet and myself and children are nearly clueless as to what to do. I always suggest reading books since I can't read enough, but the children are usually not into that. Luckily, in recent years, we have amassed a collection of board games we can pull out when we find there is no power, Internet or television. Sometimes we even do it for fun.