Don't Want To

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"What you need to do, is get a smart phone," they tell me. Who are "they"? "They" are everyone I know. Family members, friends (the few I have who are still alive), and even strangers who actually shouldn't be telling me anything because it's none of their business. My answer to them is always "I don't want to," which to my way of thinking is as good a response as any.

As a man who proudly belongs to the last century I have resisted just about any new technology of the past 20 years. When I was younger I played the keeping up with technology game and found it impossible to win. Take music as an example. I started with buying records, then when recording technology changed I went to eight track tapes, when technology changed again, I moved on to four track tapes.

You might think that would be good enough, but no.

Technology reared its ugly head yet again and forced me to buy audio cassettes. Not content to leave well enough alone, technology moved to CDs and so did I.

Remember, every time you switch to a new technology, you have to repurchase all the music you already have on the old technology. Not only that, but you have to buy a new machine which is equipped to play the new technology.

Now that I currently own about 11,000 CDs, technology has evolved once more and they want me to simply toss all my old CDs into the garbage and buy my music on streaming services over the internet. "It's just so much more convenient," they say. (Here come the "theys" again.) "You don't need to store all those old CD jewel boxes on shelves anymore. Simply subscribe to a music streaming service and punch in the song you want to hear and BINGO, there it is," they tell me.

Oh but it isn't quite that simple. In order to use streaming services you first must own a smartphone. All the phones I have are stupid phones, they only allow me to receive and make telephone calls. I have so-called landline phones in my house and I have a cellular flip phone that I take with me when I leave home. That's it.

I use the cell phone when I need to make important calls. I don't text, I don't take photographs, I don't do social media, I don't keep my personal information on it, and I don't walk around constantly looking at it.

I use a phone to speak to people (when it is absolutely necessary to speak to people). I pay my bills by check through the mail. I listen to music on my CDs. I watch television on a television set through cable. I drive myself in my own gasoline powered car to where I need to go. I order food from a printed menu in a restaurant. I read books which are printed on paper. I use real maps to locate places I'm not familiar with. And when possible, I buy things from real brick and mortar stores, even though it is getting more and more difficult to do so.

There's no doubt the world is pushing its technology on me and undoubtedly at some point I will be forced to get with the program, as the kids say. There will come a time when the only way to pay bills will be on line. The only way to watch television programs or listen to music will be through streaming. There will come a time when I won't be able to buy gas for my car. There may even come a time when individual cars will be a thing of the past and the only way to get around will be through public transportation, bicycles, scooters, or self-driving vehicles.

The good news is I'm no spring chicken (to borrow a phrase from the last century) so I might not live long enough to be forced into whatever new technology they plan to burden us with.

But until then, my answer to the "theys" who insist on pushing me into a smartphone will always be "I don't want to."

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