Technology – are we too reliant?

A few weeks ago, we went to Ikea to buy the kids new beds. Ikea is about an hour away from us (you may remember the time Jenny made a plan of action in case I went into labor there) (I’d link to it but it would be a pain to do that on my iPad). Andy was in one car with the long, flat boxes of a jillion pieces of fake wood and a couple allen wrenches, and I was in another car with the kids.

So. We left Ikea and he was going to follow me to a Wendy’s across the street to get the kids a snack, only I couldn’t turn where I thought I could and passed up the Wendy’s, and he got stopped by a red light and was no longer on my tail. No big deal, right? EXCEPT – my cell phone battery was dead. Horror of horrors, I couldn’t call him to say I was going to stop at the next exit.

The only thing we could do was drive home independently, without communicating that whole entire 50-some minutes.

Yes, we both knew we were all headed to our house. Yes, we both knew how to get there. But it was so weird not to be able to touch base.

Of course, I remember the days before cell phones {shudder} and I know we all lived to tell about it. I remember having to, like, set a time and place to meet people. I remember holding up signs in the back window to communicate to friends in the vehicle behind us. But you’ve got to admit – it seems kind of hard to imagine now.

Here’s where I should jump on the whole “We are too dependent on technology these days!” bandwagon and pledge to throw out my cell phone and learn to use smoke signals.

But you know what? I really like being able to call my husband and tell him to meet us at the next Wendy’s down the road. It’s pretty darn convenient, and let’s be real, convenient is good.

Jenny and I held out a long time (in the world of bloggers, at least) before getting smart phones. It was not until last fall that we finally broke down and got Droids. Was it an absolute necessity that we get them? No, of course not. Does it make life easier at times? Yep. And not just so I can check Facebook every few minutes or tweet whenever I have a random thought – but in ways that are convenient and even safer at times. I’ve been in situations a couple times recently that I’ve been completely lost (that is hard for me to admit, as I pride myself on my sense of direction) and I’ve been really, really glad I had my Droid Bionic there with its handy GPS and Google Maps. Like I said, it’s convenient.

Right now I’m sitting in a hotel room using the Bionic’s tethering feature to provide a wifi hotspot for my iPad so I can write this blog post. I could live without it (and I’m sure you could live without this nonsensical drivel) but very handy at the same time.

So, what do you think? Are we too reliant on technology? In what ways does technology make your life easier?

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This post is part of our participation in Verizon Wireless’s Midwest Moms campaign. They are letting us try out the Bionic.