Spoil: diminish or destroy the quality or value of
I am spoiled by technology.
I returned to work Wednesday after a long Christmas Holiday (a little too long actually) ready to hit the ground running. I woke up at 7:00 - okay 7:15 - and got ready for the day. I ate breakfast, waffles and toast, and packed my bag for the day.
3 Harry Potter Books + another book that I needed to return to the library
My new Youth Bible
Calendar
Notebook
Hymn book
Pens/Pencils
Chocolate (just in case)
Water bottle
Ready. I walked over to the main school building, set my bag on the floor, laid my coat across the sofa, grabbed the hymn book and set off towards assembly. It was a little chilly, but I didn't have time to go back for my coat.
After assembly, I went to morning prayer with Katrina, and I felt very much at home in my routine. The new school year seemed to be off to a fairly good start! After prayer, we walked upstairs to the Staff Lounge, poured ourselves a cup coffee and headed to Katrina's office to begin planning the Junior School assembly for Thursday morning and chapel for Sunday. We started tossing out ideas right away (it helps that we had a basic plan before we started) and our assembly quickly took a slightly different direction. How would we tell 7-10 year olds about Epiphany?
We sifted through some old assemblies and decided to focus on the star. What is a star?
"The Lion King!" I interjected with gusto. "The scene with Mufasa and Simba and the kings of the past."
So we went on Youtube and found the scene. It wasn't quite right for what we wanted to convey to the Junior School. So I mentioned the scene with Pumbaa, Timon, and Simba. We found it and were interrupted by a phone call. At the end of the call, we went back to the Lion King. We were greeted with this message:
page not available
what?! *Refresh* Still Nothing.
Katrina checked her email.
We quickly found out they were investigating the internet outage. Great. We moved on and figured we would come back to it later.
There was no later. At the end of the school day, there was still no internet. Have you ever been around 40 teenage girls who don't have the internet? Add in there, a small group who are taking mock exams and need the internet to study so they can do well. It was a bit chaotic.
Finally my long day was over. I headed upstairs to my flat and collapsed into my desk chair. I opened up my laptop, tried to open my email and remembered, "oh yeah. No internet." Then I made a checklist of the things I needed to do before Thursday morning.
1. Email Christian Union about weekend away
2. Email potential speaker for event
3. Find Lion King Clip for assembly
I was feeling productive so I looked back at my list.
1. Email Christian Union. Can't do that. No internet.
2. Email speaker. Can't do that either. No internet.
3. Find Clip for assembly. Seriously. No internet.
The moment of productivity passed quickly. I guess I'll just play solitaire for 15 minutes until supper. I received the following message:
Unable to sign-in to Microsoft
I debated going to Tesco to pick up a few things, but realized I couldn't check my balance before I went, and I didn't want to get all the way there and discover I didn't have enough, because that would be incredibly embarrassing!!
So, I went to a friends room instead and stayed until I was ready for bed.
I woke up today (Thursday) and still had no internet. It's fine. I didn't leave myself enough time to check email before breakfast anyway. I'll check them later. Went to assembly (luckily Katrina had the DVD of Lion King) and everything went well.
At lunch today, I learned the internet was back. HOORAY! The internet was back after 25 hours. I was ecstatic, probably more so than I should have been.
Over those 25 hours I realized just how dependent we are on technology, not just for leisure, but for work, research, banking, everything! I never thought about the fact that the majority of my daily tasks involve the internet in some way. The internet and technology are woven into my life in a way where I barely even know when I'm using it.
Need the time? I'll check my phone.
Need to know where to find a bible story? I'll look it up on Bible Gateway.
Using a video for chapel or assembly? I need YouTube.
Making sure I have enough money on my debit card? I need the internet.
Games to pass the time? Need to sign-in over internet
It's endless. And it has spoiled me as a person. The past day has opened my eyes to just how dependent on technology I truly am. It made me cringe a little knowing that my gut-reaction to lack of internet was, "What will I do with myself now?"
When I was little, I didn't need nor have internet.
I remember playing with my Barbies for hours upon hours.
I remember playing Kick the Can in the street with the neighbors, and Don't fall in the Lava with my brother in the living room.
I remember Magna-doodle and Etch-a-Sketch
I remember playing baseball and kickball in the backyard.
I remember riding my bike to the school playground.
I remember covering the driveway in sidewalk chalk.
I miss that little girl sometimes. I miss having endless possibilities contained in my imagination. Technology has spoiled it. And worst of all, I let it.
~Lina
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