No pager? No e-mail? Any life?

Computer Life column for June 6, 1998
by
Richard Gordon

The recent satellite catastrophe that left many of my friends and colleagues pager-less and beeper-free made me smile ruefully. But then, I thought about how hooked on computers and high tech communications so many of us have become.

I got a little taste of technology withdrawal when two of the computers at work were being upgraded on a day I was home but hoping to telecommute. Horrors! Can I go 3 hours without my e-mail?

Tuesday night, with distant thunder crashing somewhere in Pennsylvania while some Delawareans were still without power from our last storm, I wondered how I'd do if I was really computer-free and perhaps without electricity for a few days.

One loud crack of thunder caused me to grab two diskettes and make copies of some files and documents of which I didn't have back-up copies.

You'd think, after losing my hard drive last Halloween, that I'd routinely back up my files every night. But no, it took two thunderstorms over a 3-day period to get me to make sure I had copies of everything.

How would your life change?

Most of my friends and colleagues with pagers swear by them and at them. Formerly, pagers were "for emergencies." But some people tell me to use their beepers routinely instead of calling their direct phone numbers.

One of my band-mates is a law enforcement officer. Usually, when his beeper goes off at practice, it's his wife trying to reach him. A couple of times, however, it has been a law enforcement situation. One night, practice stopped as my friend talked a parolee through the proper procedures he needed to follow as a result of an incident.

Then there's the story I heard about a a man who used to work for an area bank. He'd been rising higher and higher in the pecking order, but one day he snapped. As he and his family returned to the Philadelphia airport from a vacation, during which time he had dutifully allowed the office to interrupt him multiple times a day, his beeper went off.

It went off again as he approached the Blue Route.

When it went off a third time as his family crossed the Delaware border, he flung the beeper from the car.

I don't have a beeper, but I do have a cell phone.

"Only for emergencies," I swore. Yeah, right. Like speed-dialing Pat's to have a plain cheese and a green pepper and onion pizza ready for pick up on my way home. Like pushing *610 to call the Steve and Mike show.

I really do know better. One of my favorite bumper strips says, "Hang up and drive!"

When I use my cell phone too much or see some of my friends playing "pager pranks" with each other, I marvel at our lack of self-control--it's fun to use these gadgets as toys.

E-mail, beepers, cell phones are great. But, like any of these information technologies, we need to learn to find their proper roles.

For example, I use a couple of spreadsheets to organize my soccer teams at the Western Y. No, I don't bring a laptop to every match in order to record every last drop of data about my 7-9-year-olds.

But it did take me a while to figure out how much information I needed to record to help me prepare line-ups and practices. At first, I took advantage of the technology and kept recording more and more information. One season, I even tried to find a way to note who had played well with whom.

I ended up spending more hours in front of the computer than I ever had with paper and pencil. After I realized that all I really used with these kids was participation and goals scored, the spreadsheets became more helpful again.

We have all this cool technology. Sometimes, we give in to the temptation to play with it, using it more than we need to, playing with it instead of using it to complete tasks or communicate efficiently.

So, some of us were pager-free for a day or two. And I was without e-mail for an afternoon. I bet we all survived. And if the power goes out, I can always play guitar in the dark. Just so long as it comes back soon so I can catch up with my e-mail and maybe plug in my amp.

Copyright © 1998, The News Journal Company

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