I’ve been thinking, since last week, about the idea of turning back time to when there was no internet, and no smart phones, or Alexas or Siris. As I blogged back then, I’ve been a whirlwind of activity in cyberspace since I finished writing and editing my new thriller, Fool Her Once.
Even my husband, Joe, has remarked on it: “I don’t remember you having to do all this marketing and sales work after you finished writing your first two books.”
He is right. I, too, remember a time when all an author had to do was turn up for book signings. But, as I reminded him, when I wrote my first two thrillers there was no internet and no social media. So, no book bloggers, no influencers, no Amazon books, no Goodreads; no Goodreads giveaways, no BookBub.
Admittedly, all good stuff for authors — except it always seems that just when you’ve mastered, say, Instagram, then along comes TikTok as the next big thing for book sales.
Would You Turn Back Time?
As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one thinking existential thoughts about the Internet and other technological marvels. A question posed this week by a Tweeter(below) made me stop to think about the internet in general.
Would I really want to go back to the (good) old days?
Ummm! Let’s See
What Would I Miss?
Well, I don’t use Alexa or Siri; I’m not on Facebook, and I haven’t gotten the hang of Tik Tok – and probably never will.
But let’s think about all the things I couldn’t live without if there was no internet. Or, at least, the most important ones:
Reading all my newspapers and magazines online. I can’t stand the thought of going back to the days of waiting for them to drop at the end of the driveway:
Living without Google and not being able to research information for my thriller or a blog the instant I need it;
Ordering e-books on line and having them instantly delivered to my Kindle:
Living without Dr. WebMD: If I wake at 3a.m. with an anxiety attack about having contracted some fatal disease, I need to be able to research the list of symptoms immediately
Using MapQuest (yes, still) to get directions so I can write them out in big block letters and put them on the passenger seat next to me where I can read them;
Finally, couldn’t imagine life without all those other little conveniences like purchasing airline and jitney tickets online; ordering and paying for almost anything online; accessing my home security system and its cameras so I can see what’s going on when I’m not home; streaming movies and Tv shows; and of course, being able to attend meetings virtually by Zooming (fabulous once I discovered the trick of using an LED bulb to light up my face.)
As for my Smartphone/cellphone? I could probably live without access to my email or to Twitter or Instagram on my phone. Do I really need to stay that connected 24/7? However, I couldn’t function without texts — and I love my iPhone camera.
Love My iPhone Camera
I love using my own photos for my blogs, and I love having instant reminders of fabulous meals, or terrific scenic vistas — or even of really bad days like the day my car ran into the gate of a parking garage in Florida!
Helicopter Parenting?
In fact, I have loved cellphones since Joe and I gave our son, Daniel, a mobile phone as soon as he started getting out and about on his own. I really don’t know how parents survived in the days before cell phones.
Of course, as well as a mobile phone, you need a semi-responsible kid too. In the days, when Daniel ignored most text messages or voicemails from me, all I had to do –when I was at the end of my rope– was text: “Please. Just need a K”. (Which meant all he had to do was text one letter to tell me he was alive.)
That never failed to get a response. I’m happy to say, it still works to this day!!!
Please click on the Like Button if you enjoyed this blog. Also, let me know what you’d miss about the Internet and/or having a cellphone?
If you’d like to see how I’ve used my iPhone camera to illustrate blogs about my new thriller, you can do so by accessing Fool Her Once in the Menu Bar.
Interesting read as always!! And ouch for that poor car 🙁 I would go back in an instant. Sure, things were maybe tougher without the ready streams of content and information at our fingertips, but if you ask me that made life better. Right now we are awash in information but drowning for knowledge. If I wanted to know something as a child I had to take the steps to learn it through real research. Grabbing a book at the library and reading until you found it.
Trust me, the day will come when society at large will lament the loss of real wisdom that came along with the rise of the information super highway (does anyone call it that anymore?)
“Awash in information but drowning for knowledge!!!!!” Never a truer word spoken. You hit it right on the head, Eldon. How on earth do we wade through it all these days?
I’m not sure we can, Joanna. And that’s one of the biggest problems facing society today. None of us can take it all in and the ease with which information is given to us is far too often confused with wisdom – which cannot be given.
That’s why conspiracy theorists have a big hold on the uninformed members of our society: they can’t distinguish what’s fact and what’s fiction. But then let’s be honest: how many of us can actually claim to know anything is fact 100% these days?
Ain’t that the truth!!