Yesterday at work (the Wooster library), the computer network went down around 10 am. This includes the connection to check-in/out books, the internet, e-mail, all that good stuff. I found it depressing how our society is so dependant on computers. There were people just walking around because they couldn't find anything to do, there were some departments that packed up and went home at lunch because they couldn't do anything without computers. The one lady I work by was cleaning out here desk, after she went trough and weeded out old, unneeded e-mails from the past couple years. It was pathetic! My tasks could be completed without a computer so I was going about my business and people asked me why I was still working.

I started thinking about how much do I rely on computers. When it comes down to it, I think I could live without them. All I really use the internet for is the blog you are reading now and reading others, e-mail, instant messaging, and fantasy sports. I could write a diary, I could write letters to people, and I could do without fantasy sports if I absolutly have to. Other than the internet all I use my computer for is playing High Heat and of course, writing papers. I could do withou High Heat, too. The hand writing papers things scares me. Getting three-fourths of the way done and messing up so bad you have to start the page over? That would stink. But I think I could do it.

One computerized thing that will become a big part of my life this year is laying out a newspaper. It's pretty easy with Quark Express and goes a lot faster, but it is possible to lay a paper out the old fashioned way.

Then there are the little things like listening to music, or watching movies, but there are other means to do that. So after my self-evaluation I'm pretty sure I could make it in a non-computerized world. I really don't do anything that absolutely needs a computer. That makes me happy. I want computers to be a hobby, not what controls my life.