Monday Morning Confessional

Last updated on: September 22, 2014 at 11:16 am by Tim Suttle

Monday Morning Confessional 2014-09-22T11:16:01-06:00 Tim Suttle

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I confess that I’m tired of setting up online accounts. I’m tired of creating passwords. You can’t do anything anymore without setting up an account. For instance, I just want to get scores from the ESPN app. I don’t want to customize my experience because I don’t care that much. I’m going to use this thing to check scores while I’m out and about, maybe six or seven Saturdays during college football season tops, and I’m happy to give ESPN my patronage. But, I want to monitor a college football ticker without signing in. Is that too much to ask? Theoretically I can use the app without signing in, except for the fact that their app is constantly asking me if I want to create an account, or sign-in using my Facebook account. Every time my finger touches the screen something pops up to ask me if I’m finally ready to fork over my personal information or not.

When I finally give in and create an account for whatever thing I wanted to just do without signing-in, signing-up, or creating an account, I diligently and carefully tick/un-tick all of the boxes regarding emails, special offers, or push announcements. I don’t want any more of these than I have to have. But I still get them. When a vendor offers you a box that says “don’t send push emails,” don’t believe them. They don’t care about you or your stupid inbox. You’ll get their emails and like it.

I know the reply–This is done in order to protect your privacy. It’s not that big of a deal, just create the account. Get used to it. This is the way the world is going to be from now on–but I am tired of the rationale. I have create-an-account fatigue. I don’t want to sign-in anymore. And the signing in with your Facebook account option? That one really ticks me off. Who knows what kind of jacked up personality profile algorithm Facebook has going on all of us? I’m sure they know me better than I know myself. They should just create an app I that will tell me where I want to eat today. It’ll probably be more decisive than I am, and maybe more effective.

I confess that I sometimes feel like I’m teetering on the edge of the technological cliff. At some point, some twelve year old kid is going to brush by me too fast, and I’ll be over the edge. From that point on I will never be able to watch television again without help from my kids. Technology, we’re told, has the power to rewire our brains. What if my brain is recalcitrant? What if I start to become so slow that I can’t keep up with the herd? Luckily, the late middle-aged still has the most purchasing power, so I’m sure I’ll still have a place in society for a couple of decades. But the end is coming. I can sense it.

I’m mostly joking, but this is actually a real fear for me. I think my grandma is a remarkable woman. When I was young she would tell me stories about the dust bowls in Kansas, the great depression, and what it was like during WWII with a husband overseas. She kept up with the pace of change through an awful lot considering that when she was young the console stereo was cutting edge. We’re talking pre-telephone & television, much less the digital age. I think she lost track of technology about the time every grandchild got a laptop. She learned to navigate the personal computer, but it has never been comfortable. So, at what point will I be left behind? It seems cruel that a person’s ability to take part in the popular culture could fall victim to progress and planned obsolescence.

I always want to retain the ability to change and grow, so maybe it’s good. Living things flex. Only the dead are brittle. We change and grow and learn and adapt or we eventually break. But when the mind is involved–processing styles, neural pathways–it sometimes feels as though my will, my desire to change and grow, has less and less to do with whether or not I can keep up. I have to wonder if, at some point my intuition will have been formed in such a by-gone era that I will be comprised of fully incompatible equipment. Will I be expected to go for a walk some cold winter’s night and not come back? I suppose it’s possible.

What if the only constant is change? What if even God changes? The Hebrew people were certain that God did change, and yet was the same, was always faithful. So I set up my accounts, and save my passwords, and I try not to use the same freaking password in every single time. I try to learn about new technology and to not be afraid to try new things.

Okay, that’s my confession for this Monday. Time for yours:

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