MODERN CYBER-TECHNOLOGY: A RUNAWAY TRUCK?

"...even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." (from Daniel 12:4)

On the Massachusetts Turnpike Eastbound (also known as Interstate 90) just prior to the Westfield Exit (#3) is something called a "runaway truck lane". You notice while traveling through the rolling Berkshire hills for some distance prior to it, there are signs advising of the runaway truck lane ahead. As you might guess, the runaway truck lane comes after a long downhill stretch of roadway. Truckers are able to veer right, and along a slight incline with giant plastic containers filled with sand. I wonder if any truckers have ever needed the runaway truck lane. At least it's there to prevent a disaster.

Holiday dinners and gatherings can often bring out lively conversation and discussion. Yesterday, my wife and I joined two of our grown children for Easter dinner at a restaurant. We had a nice meal, but somehow the topic of rapidly changing cyber technology came up. It might surprise you that Jon and Rachel, both "twenty somethings" are very leery of technological trends that would replace hard copy books with books on-line only, would get rid of textbooks in favor of books on electronic "tablets", would make CDs obsolete in favor of all recorded music being downloaded from cyberspace, and would make the U.S. Postal Service go away. I agree with them, but of course, at fifty-seven it's not so unusual for people my age to lament these rapid changes. Jon gets pretty headed and angry about the way society is FORCING these changes upon us. He believes if the day comes, for instance, that we have no more hard copy books or CDs and no U.S. Postal Service people will deeply regret what they've lost, but it will then be too late to do anything about it.

"What girl grows up dreaming of her wedding- for which she'll send out E-MAIL wedding invitations?! Don't they all want formal printed invitations with response cards to be send by traditional mail?! Have they forgotten that if there's no post office THAT will be lost?!" Jon angrily protests.

"And, I WANT to purchase CDs." he adds "Sure, I'll load their content onto my computer, but I want the hard copy CDs, too!"

I agree.

You may find's Rachel's comments every more surprising. She pays absolutely NO bills on-line. For each bill, she makes out a check, stuffs it into an envelope, puts a stamp on it, and drops it into the mail.

"I NEED that experience of putting that stamp on the envelope and dropping it into the mailbox." she says.

Yes, Jon and Rachel can be "a bit O.C.D.". So can I - they get that from me! Now, Jon and Rachel HAVE each purchased items on-line. The main reason for this is that SOME items can ONLY be purchased on-line and no other way. I've also purchased some items on-line, but neither my kids nor I prefer purchasing items that way.

As our conversation wound down, I said, "Well, I guess we're just old fashioned."

Jon couldn't have disagreed with me more.

"No!" he protested,"We're NOT old fashioned! 'Old fashioned' is using only a rotary dial phone and not owning a computer. We're not old fashioned. We don't object to computers or cell phones or modern devices. We just want CHOI8CE and don't want traditional options such as hard copy books, CDs, newspapers and such to become lost forever."

Once again, I agree. The progress is happening just WAY too rapidly. Think about what automoblies were like one hundred years ago. We didn't go in four years from the Model T to the Trans Am. That took more like forty-six years. We also didn't go from the Orville and Wilbur Wright bi-plane to the Boeing 707 in four years. That took around fifty-four years. Today, if your cell phone is four years old, people laugh at you. You might as well throw it into the trash. And, if your computer is five years old, it's a dinosaur - donate it to a museum! I got my first cassette tape recorder in 1968. It took over thirty years for that to become out of date.

Again, Jon and Rachel and I are not anti-technology. Look, I write a blog. I'm on Facebook. Rachel's on Facebook. Jon writes a blog (you can read his MacaroniWaffles blog at http://macaroniwaffles.blogspot.com ). But why do so many precious parts of our society have to be run over by the runaway truck of rapidly moving and rapidly changing cyber-technology?

Are there simple, tangible things those of us who DON'T want to lose traditional options can do? Yes. I, for one, for the past few months have written and mailed a traditional letter to a friend on the 15th of each month. I got this idea from a "save the post office" site on-line. Jon pointed out that there's currently a contest for fans of "The Biggest Loser" where fans can ONLY enter by sending an entry by U.S. Mail. Tell businesses that you want the option of using regular mail or having hard copy books or hard copy CDs and don't take "no" for an answer.

And, if you agree with us, send the link to this to all your friends!