How it Feels to be a Luddite in a Hightech World

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[Applause]

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in the 1800s during the industrial

revolution

a group of weavers with sledgehammers in

hand

smashed the power looms in the textile

factories

as they saw them as a threat to their

livelihood as artisans

named after the mythical leader ned ludd

who nobody knows was real or not

these luddites waged war on the machines

and threatened the industrialists who

built them

in essence they represented opposition

to modern technology

it’s 2020 in i2 and a luddite

i use certain technologies if i must to

survive in the 21st century

but prefer to live as tech free as

possible

a lot of technology and gadgets scare

and confuse me

the bottom line is i don’t like a lot of

buttons and beeps

however unlike ned lot and his followers

i won’t be taking a sledgehammer to my

electronics

i was born a luddite growing up my

family would opt in and opt out of

technology

if we saw the benefits we were in

for example we got an answer machine

when it had been out for about five to

eight years

when we bought it took it out of the box

and plugged it in

we stood around it at the table and were

in awe of how a device could record a

message from a phone call

we were changing out the tapes and the

machines when people started to have

these digital ones that didn’t require a

tape

however we were content to keep changing

out the tapes in our now

old machine and we’re fascinated by the

fact that people left messages

when other young adults were trying new

things

i was still a committed luddite i had a

typewriter

when others started to have this

portable folding device called a laptop

later in college i opted to try out one

of these new newfangled contraptions

it was about two inches thick had to be

plugged in and had this rainbow apple

symbol on it

while i missed my typewriter i did like

how the laptop could erase words

much faster than that typewriter tape

my lotus tendencies led to a career

that always has me living in the past as

a historian

i admire a world that existed before the

arrival of the locomotive and the black

soot producing factories

where you can breathe the air and enjoy

the countryside free of time clocks

machines and anything technical

while there’s been much progress with

industrial technology

i also see how modernization has led to

overcrowded cities

rabid consumerism environmental

pollution

and the arrival of the commercial farm

currently we are in phase 4.0 of the

industrial revolution

and we have developments like

digitization

automation artificial intelligence to

name a few

these advancements have us constantly

upgrading our technical devices

while simultaneously degrading our

environment

with a pileup of toxic electronics and

plastics

though a luddite i still have to live in

modern times

i’m like an old cast iron skillet living

in a fancy pressure cooker world

i got a smartphone i held onto my flip

phone as long as i could

until society practically forced me to

get a new one

it has way too many apps i don’t like

notifications

i dislike texting but

i still have my landline

i do smart teaching students apparently

don’t want to learn just by listening

to me they like to see lots and lots of

powerpoints

students love the technical world of

laptops ebooks and wikis

so all i see of my students are the tops

of their heads and the backs of their

laptops

don’t students realize that the best

time of the year is back to school

shopping

pens pencils notepads electronics are

boring i drive a high-tech

car i held onto my old school automobile

as long as i could until i had to get

another one

it has this large digital dashboard with

all of these apps

it tells me to get a cup of coffee if i

drive more than two hours

but it doesn’t use a key to start or

have a cd player

this was my luddite life until the

arrival of the global pandemic

the pandemic caused us to change how we

live think

and schools businesses government closed

we social distance and stayed home

we shut down the world to prevent the

increased spread

of coven 19. this dramatic shift

became our new normal

much to the horror of any luddite like

these developments meant the increased

use of technology

electronic gadgets like phones and

tablets became

lifelines for us to connect with family

and friends

instead of just food and water and

apparently now toilet paper to survive

we also needed more wi-fi bandwidth

and headsets our entire lives went

online

the new world we live in is quite

frankly

a luddite’s biggest nightmare allowing

more technology into my life

wasn’t on my daily planner however i

reluctantly do so

while resisting the urge to stare too

deeply into my phone screen

thus i’m a luddite surviving a pandemic

doing what i need to do

i caved and added a few more apps to my

phone

though i resist those notifications

a large coffee chain tried to force me

to download an app to order their

coffee instead i get my coffee at a

different drive throughout a different

business

where i speak to a human being

i discovered this thing called binge

watching

my tablet tells me my screen time is

breaking records

and i have accepted that for now i will

see my students in online squares on my

laptop

and i’ll be making more powerpoints than

ever

in a time of great uncertainty and fear

i’m still a luddite i can choose when i

want to connect

and disconnect from technology i’m not a

machine after all

and i will continue to honor my beloved

technophobes

unfortunately for these rebels in the

1800s

breaking machines became a capital

offense punishable by death

luddites were arrested and some were

executed

sadly their movement was short-lived

the industrialists and the machines won

the battle

however their war against a technical

utopia rages on

their efforts should give us all pause

before we click

swipe or stare at our electronics

maybe read a book close the laptop

cook with an old cast iron skillet

it’s okay to be alluded every once in a

while go on try it

just don’t take a sledgehammer like the

luddites

or an old cast iron skillet to your

electronics

you’ll need them

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