Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but what was planned as a simple hour of blogging, catching up on email and playing games online with my son before my niece's birthday party turned into another panic attack. For the second time in three months, it seemed that our desktop computer had been infected.
Last time this happened, we spent four days without the computer and paid $140 to have an expert remove the nasty electronic bug. (Little did our ancestors know we'd someday have exterminators who killed bugs other than cockroaches and ants, huh?)
Thankfully, a third reboot, followed by running an anti-spyware program installed by the computer technician who removed the previous virus, seems to have solved the problem.
But it caused me to think once again about how simple, yet complex, our lives have become in this Age of Screens.
Simple because I can check the weather forecast, find out what my friends have been up to and read the latest news on my smartphone in the first five to 10 minutes of my day without even going downstairs and booting up the computer.
And I can relax at the end of the day or have 30 or 40 friends over at a time to watch the Oscars, the Super Bowl or a favorite movie on a screen that can be seen all over our living room, thanks to the joys of flat-screen plasma TVs.
Cool, right? Much better than the days of slide rules and 45 rpm vinyl records, huh?
Well, yes and no. Although all of these devices simplify our lives and make them more enjoyable in many ways, they also make life more complex and less meaningful. They discourage us from interacting with our families, spouses and friends in meaningful ways. And when the technology fails, it tends to do so in spectacular fashion. Fixing it is rarely inexpensive, which complicates budgets, along with adding to our stress levels.
So which is better? The simplicity that comes with old-fashioned pencil and paper letters, books made out of dead trees and telephones with dials that spun back to their place of origin after each number was selected?
The answer isn't easy. Unfortunately, I love a lot of things about the three devices pictured above, plus the computer I'm typing this blog post on. I can't imagine going back to the days before I owned these devices. But there are days and specific moments when I look for ways to escape having my eyeballs locked in on another screen (in fact, we've had to go so far as to limit our children's "screen time," which now includes video games on the Wii and Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, regular TV and computer). I would rather read a nice hand-written note from a friend or visit over coffee with a member of my church family after worship, as I had the pleasure of doing this morning.
I have no interest in adding another electronic device -- the e-book reader -- to my life, despite friends and co-workers singing its praises. There's still something rewarding and tangible about picking up a hardcover book, curling up in an oversized chair and getting lost in the story contained in its pages. (I have a Bible app on my smartphone, but I never use it. I would rather grab the leather-bound copy my wife bought for me.)
All of this makes me wonder if our society is doing what the author Neil Postman suggested several years back with the title and theme of his book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death." My challenge in this day and age is to engage my children in activities that can be rewarding that don't involve electronic devices (serving breakfast at the local homeless shelter, picking up trash along the road near our home and riding our bicycles along the Greenway are three examples of summer activities we have done in the past).
And just as I am working on my spiritual development by engaging in daily reflection, I wonder what else I should do to lead by example.
Maybe next year for Lent I should give up my iPod or my TV. Then again, maybe I should stick with the fast food ...
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