A rant begins here.

The stress and anxiety of modern life causes me to create a pleasant break where I imagine a simpler life via my mind. It is a momentary respite to simply relieve frustration. If you think the Luddites were loonies, consider the following.

Before email and text became the de facto ways we communicate with each other, there were  pencils made from wood and letters sent by mail. Stationery was carefully chosen. Points were awarded for a nice handwriting. Stamps were collected and saved in albums. The anticipation of waiting for the mailman was part of the process.

After spending half of a day trying to reconnect my internet connection so I could use wi-fi to write this post, I  question why I do this to myself.  Now I think of it as why-fi. I had the less than joyful experience of trying to reach a live agent by using an AI chatbot. The Artificial  Intelligence way of communicating is aptly named. I was limited in resolving my problem because the “Assistant” was programmed with limited sentences and I was programmed with a growing headache. Yes, wi-fi is a mysterious and magical tool that allows me to work from just about anywhere as long as there is an access point that is created by a dedicated hardware device. We call them hotspots for short. Oy.  I will still be using a Bic pen and a legal pad in my time machine because neither require customer service or tech support.

This leads to everyone’s best pal, their cell phone. A landline, pre-answering machine, was a device used for making a call or receiving a call. That’s it. No camera, no map, no video screen, no music and no calculator. The cell phone is like a Swiss Army knife if that knife required your constant attention and was rarely put away. I will keep Google maps that speak directions so I can focus on my driving and also appreciate the searchable virtual library in my purse anytime I want to use it.

My retro reverie includes a car made only to drive from here to there and bring passengers with me. There would be no maps with animated screens, no cell phone access through the steering wheel, GPS voices that are not 100% accurate in their guidance and no video setups for small children to plug themselves into. This is my time machine to outfit, so I am keeping the car radio, seatbelts and the one real necessity after gas and oil – the car air conditioner. (OK, I know I said no cell phone, but how will I hear Google maps? Still thinking on that one…)

There is clearly much good to be had from modern life and modern technology. My task is to make every effort to remember where and when to use the genius of my devices and when to turn them off. The best thing about my time machine fantasy is feeling my blood pressure return to normal. End of rant.