Technology

Saturday 12th May 2012

I have taken the brave step today of announcing that I am a SIMS addict and will no longer be playing the online game SIMS Social.  Anyone who knows me knows that I can get ‘hooked’ into my computer very easily.  I have played Tetris for 8 hours solid without leaving the armchair and purchased every SIMs PC game and played them to exhaustion.  I removed them from my PC along when I started my degree in 2003 along with taking the pledge to no longer spend 12 hours a week watching soap operas.  I never went back to soaps after I finished studying but the lure of the PC game is always ever present!

With cigarettes, I learnt from bitter experience that one puff and I would be back to 30 a day within a month and with computer games my harmless flirtation with ‘Bubble Witch Saga’ and ‘Words with Friends’ lead to being online all the time I was at home with SIMS Social.  ‘Words with Friends’ an online scrabble game was no problem as it at least made you think a bit and also served as a nice link with friends at home in the UK and other places.  ‘Bubble Witch Saga’ was a bit of mindless time wasting.  But SIMS Social, with its constant demands to complete tasks for ‘Rewards’ and to ‘Invite Friends’ was exhausting.  This is much more like stressful living.  As with  the real rat race, the realisation that as soon as one task was completed there were four more waiting in line and with no satisfaction at the end of it (other than getting through) was the wake-up call both to take a stand with SIMS Social and co-incidentally as it was with ‘real life’.  Hence upping sticks and coming to Georgia.

The PC is a lifeline here as there is firstly a lot of down-time and secondly an essential communication tool with email, internet and Skype.  We use it to make resources for school and to watch films and TV series that we downloaded or copied from other teachers here.  Our kindles hold around 1000 books and are the same weight as a reporter’s note book.  All this we know but at the same time I feel uncomfortable with my dependence on it.  A previous blog entry highlighted my sheer panic at not having electricity which meant no computer.  The other day I messed up my Kindle and it looked like I would have to get it fixed in the UK and until Martin sorted it for me I was in a bit of a state – “What am I gonna do?”  Obviously I am old enough to remember a time before the internet – what did I do before then? – I used to talk on the phone a lot and watch TV and a lot of gardening.

A couple of the volunteers I have met here were not computer literate to start with and manage to live without the technology for the most part.  A couple have made a deliberate decision to not bring a laptop or Kindle with them so that they can fully integrate into the culture and not use technology as a distraction from interacting with their families.

Gone are the days where our spare time was spent on basic survival needs such as making clothes, cooking and growing and preserving food for the winter.  With my studying days in abeyance, I am at a loss what to do with all of my spare time and am looking for something that is not actually a complete and utter waste.