Rebooting the Hilroy

Over the holidays I was given a Blackberry as a gift, which is cool. Not a "Hey, I just used GPS to track down my estranged father" type, but an older model that I figured I could use as an organizer. Make a few notes, keep phone numbers and addresses, that sort of thing.

Whenever I added information to my Blackberry, I always made a point of adding the same information to a notebook where I keep those sort of things. When I was doing that I had to ask myself, is this necessary? The answer is yes: because I don't trust modern technology.

Now I'm not saying that I don't like or enjoy all the fun and exciting gizmos available. Most times I love them. I just find that I can't rely on them. I'm always filled with the sense of this is too good to be true. It wasn't long ago that I would wait weeks upon weeks to get a music cassette and listen to it. Now on a whim I can acquire any song I desire in a matter of minutes and then throw it on a portable device or burn it and be listening to it wherever I want at no cost. I've talked about how fragile technology is with Ipods and computers, and the Blackberry is just another example.

I don't know when or how or why, but the thing might just stop working, or it might break, or the information might simply disappear. MP3 players, CD players, computers, Thumb drives, gaming consoles, printers, DVD players, cellphones, digital cameras, the list goes on. All these things have looked me in the eye one day, said "You know what - I quit", and stopped working. They never have the decency of showing some visible explanation for breaking- like a having an axe wound or being on fire.

I store addresses in my Blackberry, but that doesn't mean they'll be there tomorrow. So I write it down in a notebook. I've never flipped through my notebook after dropping it to find all the pages erased. I've never had to rip half the pages out of a notebook because it was infected with a virus. I've never had to buy batteries for a notebook and then yell at it because it used them up so goddamn fast. I've never had to replace the cover on a notebook because I hadn't used it a few months at it wouldn't open. And I've never had to buy a new notebook because it wasn't compatible with the ink I was using.

It seems (at least in some ways) technology hasn't matched that of paper held together with a metal coil. Are you as worried as I am?