A Day without Computer

We live in a technological world in which we are always communicating.  And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.

Sherry Turkle, psychologist, professor at M.I.T. and  author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, in New York Times,  “The Flight from Conversation,” April 22, 2012

Studs Turkel (1912 - 2008  ),  Chicago Journalist and Radio Host, Talking to Myself, A Memoir of My Times, 1992

April 23, 2012 – What shall I do today?   My computer is down.  I just ripped it loose from its moorings.  I am taking  it to Staples for “diagnostics” to see why the damned thing doesn’t work. 

I’m  thinking of those practicing doctors.  What would they do without computers, IPads, or electricity ?   

Close their offices?  No, that wouldn’t do no patients, no income, no purpose. They would have to listen to patients, talk to them, examine them,  read their body languages.   They would have to write to what they see, hear, feel, and observe.   They couldn’t dictate. They couldn't click. They would have to write down their observations  with pen or pencil. 

 

They might  have to do what I’m doing now – talking to myself or others , unconnected to the rest of the world.  I would have no posts to write,  no tweets to tweet.  no texts to text, no calls to make, no IPad to click.

Between patients, they would   have to do what I’m doing now, alone by themselves.  Sitting, thinking and using their  noodles  without outside connections.  Woe is me. Woe is them.  Talking  to ourselves, or to patients.   We may find out what’s on our mind or what’s on their minds or what their gestures or their bodies reveal.

Tweet:  Think about it. What would you do if your computer went down, the electricity went out, and your IPad went incommunicado..