Enough!

Do you ever get to the point when enough is enough? I sure do!! And it is now that time.

There is so much turmoil going on everywhere, it can get overwhelming and very anxiety provoking. There are times I would like to torch my iPhone and blow up my email accounts for all the crap that continually flows into them.

My iPhone receives spam calls by the score daily about really nothing except someone trying to sell me something…. And it takes my time and attention away from what I am doing. The problem is I do not want to miss an important call.

On my email, I can and do set a spam setting that gets rid of a lot of phony emails, but even then many get through. Again, I don’t want to miss an important one from say a business contact or family.

I remember in the old days, phone calls were few and from people you wanted or needed to talk to. There was no email; only United States Postal Service. So, any mail contact had to be paid for by the sender in the first place and when received, could be read at one’s leisure after opening an envelope.

Then there are now the wonderful Comcast and Internet news channels. In the old days news came largely from the local newspaper and from usually an evening TV news broadcast of an hour or so except for special focused programs. That was enough.

On my iPhone, I don’t even like the “voice mail” feature. I don’t use it. My message to anyone calling that doesn’t get me is to call back later or text message me. Period. No voice messaging. Again, more wasted and interrupted time.

Maybe the answer is to go on an electronic news of all kinds blackout for a period every once in awhile. That would be great except I would want my spouse to be able to contact me. Everything else could wait. Then read your local newspaper at your chosen time.

I am an old guy…. A dinosaur. I remember days when phone numbers in our town were four digits only! Like ours at home was “4339”. Then it became “Gladstone 4339” with only the first three letters used on the phone dial. Now we have to use 10 digits: area code, then the 7 phone digits unless going out of country, then add one more digit.

There was no television at all. Only radio programs. Can you imagine. Of course, the Internet was not even a dream then. Typewriters were manual; not electric. And no electronic calculators. The first one of those for me was a Texas Instrument one that could add, subtract, multiply, divide, and take square roots. The cost was $450; a fortune in those days. And computers….. Forget it!

So, life has gotten really complicated and very fast paced. Information pours in like a tsunami every day, much of which one can do nothing about. I am not sure we have made progress, only complication and adrenalin provoking images and rhetoric. Are we wiser and more sure of our direction. I don’t think so, but who am I to judge: an old guy.

My message to all….. Take a break.