LESS HIGH-TECH, MORE LOW-TECH! By Veronica Smith

Unlike the 1960s Cold War, when the biggest threat was nuclear fall-out, the modern fear is centered around Cyber Attack. Let’s face it, society is overly dependent on high-tech. All utilities rely on “smart-tech” to read meters and to ration supplies. Banks want us to go cashless and do everything on-line, including paying utility bills. Even government bodies want citizens to do tax returns and applications online instead of using paper forms. All this personal information is online and vulnerable.

So a cyber attack could effectively knock out the entire system!

I come from a pre-high-tech generation. My parents were born during World-War One and grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Their parents (my grandparents) were born in the second half of the 1800s. They were country folk, who knew how to make-do with what was available around them. Thankfully, they passed on their “Low-Tech” knowledge to their descendants. I know how to wild-forage, preserve food and do basic carpentry.

Despite my age, I too have been dazzled by the glitter of high-tech toys. I am overly reliant on my IPhone. I am writing this article on my laptop. I take digital photographs, which are kept in Cyber-Space, instead of the more lasting paper versions in our family album, some of which date back to the late 1800s!

I could definitely do less IPhone, IPad, Kindle, Laptop. Paper books are easier on the eyes to read and I do not need to “recharge” a paper book before I can read it! Having a conversation with real people around me is better than peering at my phone screen, exchanging silly text messages with some-one half way around the world!

Have you ever taken part in a “Digital Detox” event? For a specific length of time, you must live without your high-tech devices and transition from virtual reality to ordinary reality! It has become a popular form of therapy, freeing up time for self-care and meditation. Nevertheless, some people do freak out, finding excuses why they have to stay connected, unable to cope! They refuse to admit that our dependency on High-Tech, like all forms of addiction, is simply a bad habit.

My first step was getting rid of the television set. If I need information, I can read the newspaper headlines. Although the postal services complain that they are over-loaded with on-line parcel deliveries, it is still nice to receive a paper-card, or a hand-written letter, in the post. I save favorite cards and letters in a keep-sake box, that I can physically open, without wondering if I have enough “Cloud” storage space!

In these uncertain times, we must not become so totally dependent on High-Tech that we cannot cope in an emergency. There are many things that High-Tech, AI and Virtual Reality can not solve in the every day human world, especially when the power to run such “applications” has been knocked out.

Perhaps Low-Tech survival skills should become a mandatory subject in schools. What do you think?

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