How it Feels to be a Luddite in a Hightech World
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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
me
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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