I start to feel like an old curmudgeon. Time and technology move too swiftly and now encroach on my sense of privacy. I register for my board recertification and the academy asks that you sign in online and select a test center. Before you can select the center or even review the various options and test sites, you have to enter a plethora of demographics and professional metrics AND then give the third party administrative coordinators the option to use your data. Not gonna happen. Then my office manager asks me to complete forms to allow the business to pay the health insurance premiums for our employee health using an electronic transfer but the health insurance wants mine AND my office manager’s HOME addresses. My son registers to take the SAT exam and the 45 minute application process to simply PAY for the test practically asks for a buccal swab and genetic mapping. Now the Florida legislature wants to allow people to use electronic copies of their insurance cards (stored on their smart phones) as proof of insurance. Really? How hard is a business card sized slip of paper to keep in a glove box? In South Carolina, when you write a check to buy your groceries, you have to put in a thumb print, literally a biometric identifier…..to write a dang check. Recently, I bought something at an Neiman Marcus in Austin, Texas with CASH and it confounded the sales woman and her district offices when the item I purchased was no longer available……how would they possibly get me my money back, since I live in Florida? I ended up getting a check from Neiman Marcus for the refund a month after purchase. If I had just paid for it with my debit card, I’d have made everyone’s lives easier.
I am beginning to feel like a pre-Luddite. Facebook is BORING. I mean it is super, mind numbingly BORING. I’d rather watch an Insantiy infomercial. I am close to deleting the account altogether. I like my blog, I like some other blogs. I like that venue and those voices far better than the inane and asinine posts about “Name a state that doesn’t have the letter “E” in its name! Or give a word that starts with and ends with the letter “R” in 10 seconds. Go! ROAR! Seriously, this is where we have reduced ourselves? Did we all voluntarily pith ourselves?
I am working towards an existence with less electronica and its pseudo-connections. I’d rather dig in the dirt, read, write, sew and meander about on the ACTUAL internet reading stuff instead of sitting inside Facebook like a sheep in a paddock.