Head straight at the next junction

If you take a look at the blog index page you’ll see me say I can’t survive without technology. While that is true to some extent I like to think that even without computers and such I could still cook myself a meal or go visit a friend. And while my cooking would suck equally on an old fashioned wood burning stove I’m not too sure how visiting friends would go. Sure, going to see somebody who lives nearby or who I visited before would probably still be a viable option, but as soon as we are talking distances in the range of 100km or more, things get ugly.

Case in point, over the weekend me and 8 other friends (two cars) went on a European trip to visit two friends of ours – one in Zürich, Switzerland and the other one in the capital of the Netherlands. Being the technical freak that I am I immediately suggested using a GPS navigator for this adventure and after getting a few strange looks from some of the others went out and borrowed one from a friend. By the time we started our trip I was familiar with the device and ready to use it to its fullest.

Going by how I started this entry you’re probably thinking I’ll start singing praises to the navigator and suggest buying one as soon as possible. Well, you might be right about the singing part (which is, by the way, great going by the few karaoke parties I have attended), but for the love of god don’t go out and buy it unless you absolutely need one for a long trip!

I’m saying this because over the 5 days the trip took place I’ve grown so accustomed to the female voice of the navigator telling me what to do that I actually almost caused an accident yesterday when driving into a highway crossroads nobody told me what to do. Granted, I still knew how to drive and knew exactly where to go, but I just kept waiting for that digital voice to tell me to turn left at the junction.

You’re probably shaking your head right now, thinking this could never happen to you and that it only happened to be because I wasn’t completely focused and probably was still recovering from the long 14 hour drive from Amsterdam (and no, I was not recovering from various effects of certain substances which just happen to be freely available over there). That is certainly true, but how many of you are 100% focused when driving and only drive when well rested? Even those few of you who actually don’t do anything else when driving (cell phones, listening to music, etc.) have to admit that after a long day’s work you still sit in the car and drive home.

Now that we’ve settled that what happened wasn’t caused by me being the exact opposite of a caveman with lightning quick reflexes and ultra sharp senses, let’s talk about why I’m going completely out of character and telling all of you to actually avoid technology. Like I said in the beginning I like to think that even though I rely on technology an awful lot I would still be able to function normally to some degree without it. Going by how only 5 days of using a navigator made me almost incapable of normal driving I can’t imagine what staying without the internet for long periods would do to me (considering I tend to be online an awful lot). I can’t speak for all, but at least some of you probably recognized yourself just now. You might not use GPS navigation (yet), but you probably have a cell phone in your pocket all day long, surf the web constantly and listen to music on your ultra small mp3 player as you wait around.

You’re obviously not going to stop using all of it because of what happened to me, but you’d do well to consider how much you need that next gadget you are about to buy before you actually go out and spend the money. Sure, it will make life easier and all, but you might end up like me, completely incompetent at even the easiest tasks without the help of a piece of code giving you a hand. That said, I can’t wait for a digital dating assistant to come out so I finally have a chance to score it with the ladies!

DISCUSS HERE!