When you go home from school every
night, what do you do? If you're
anything like me, you almost invariably
run to the computer, and proceed to
spend hours MSNing, : Facebooking,

and surfing away, deftly cycling

through’ folders of favourites. as you
obsessively check to see which sites
have been updated since the morning.
You continue that fora merry few hours

- until the painful tang of. guilt begins

to gnaw on your insides, prompting
you to then minimize a window or
two’ and begin to half-ass your way
through some essays and assignments
_ on Microsoft Word. But. your flirtation
“with studiousness doesn’t last too long,

either, because there’s always a new.

RIP The Simple Life

song to download, a new video to see,
or a new game to play. And really, how
can attempting to format a bibliography
compare to any of that?

It’s an exceedingly computer-

centric lifestyle we all lead these days; .

a life in which all activities increasingly
point to the same machine, and with it
the same room and same chair.

- Oh, of course we all do
‘social things as well. Hang out with
friends or ‘go to movies or play
sports or run student newspapers or
whatever. But chances are such events

“merely punctuate a lifestyle that is
overwhelmingly computer-centric.
And yet it did not always used

to be this way. Think back to when you .

were in elementary school. What did

you do when you went home in those -

days? Watched a lot more TV than you
do now, probably. But chances are you

also read books on your bed, or drew,
‘or wrote, or practiced some instrument,

or played with toys, or sorted your Pog
collection, or talked on the phone, or
engaged in countless other creative
activities. In those days there was no
all-purpose glowing machine in the
corner to distract you at all hours of the
day and night, offering a one-stop shop
for all your information, socialization,
entertainment needs.

It’s quite remarkable when I
look at old issues of the Other Press
from the 70’s or 80’s and think about

_ how someone had to physically type

all these words out with a typewriter,
cut their stories into strips of paper,
paste them all down, photograph
them, and then physically drive the

- completed mess to the printer’s office

for reproduction. There was no banging
our issues in a couple hours with a

single machine that could adjust fonts,

check spelling, and organize columns
with a few clicks of a button. Weirder
still is the idea that all the staff probably
had to physically meet with one another
to get the paper done, too. There was
no mass-emailings or “forward to
all” in those days. And when people
researched their stories they probably
had to go to the library or something,
for there was no Google or Wikipedia,
either. A mere few decades ago, yet to
ponder such a process seems as ancient
and foreign as trying to imagine a world
without indoor plumbing.

I’m no luddite, but one can’t
help feeling nostalgic for such a time. A

time in which labour was sophisticated,
_and people generally had to be good at_-

January 14, 2008

their jobs, rather than just good with
a piece of software. A time in which
you didn’t watch movies and listen to
albums on the same machine — maybe
not even in the same room. A time
when you would actually have to hear
the voices of your friends if you wanted
to make plans with them that night. A
time when your opinions on current
events were shaped by something other
than what a bunch of barely-literate
teenagers posted on 4chan.

It may never be possible to go
back to those simpler times, but I think
we'dall be a bit happier and wiser if we
could take a break from the computer
once in a while, and at least try to enjoy
activities the way they were originally
intended to be enjoyed. Write a letter on
paper, take a photo with film, listen to
a record, hell, even play a classic video
game that wasn’t illegally downloaded
and emulated.

See, watch me. I am going to
go play my classic 1980’s era Game
Boy. In my room, with my door closed.
And I will resist the urge to go into
the computer room and look up cheats
and walkthroughs. No, I'll just use my
old-fashioned back issues of Nintendo
Power. And if I need more help, |
will call my friends on the phone to
ask them. And if I want to get a new
game afterwards I will actually go on
a lengthy journey through pawn shops
and flea markets and—aw, who am |
kidding. I need you; computer!

You may be a soulless force draining
all creativity and fun from daily life...
but you’re just so darn convenient!

JJ. McCullough ,

Editor in Chief of the Other Press

 

‘WORD ON THE STREET

Laura Kelsey, Photographer

“How do you feel about the college paper
running ads from chewing tobacco companies?”

 

Liz Morrow
Second-year Associate of Arts

“Tt sends the wrong message.”

Acscsestisimstsnnsptpaninint

Cameron Hogg

Second-year Creative Arts
“Gross. I don’t agree with it.”

Alex Mowat

First-year Future Teachers Program
“T think there is an unfair connotation with the word

‘tobacco.’ Having never smoked or chewed, I can
only say that tobacco is...tobacco!.”

Oo