I think it was about 9 months ago, I set aside my Android watch and had a new battery put in my old analog wrist watch. I don’t miss the Android watch at all.
For awhile, the Android watch lay on it’s charger on my nightstand serving as a bedside clock. But disconnected from the internet it’s sense of time got all befuddled so I needed a replacement.
I looked for alarm clocks on Amazon. Plenty of digital clocks available, most with battery backup so you don’t have to reset the time after every micro power outage. Can’t this just be simple? I looked at analog alarm clocks. I found a cheap electric one from Westclock with a backlit dial so I could read it in the dark. No digital, no quartz, no battery, just a clock with proper hands and a dial. Simple and it gets the job done.
I also noticed I have not reset the clock or date in my car since I changed my car battery that went bad last summer. It requires getting out a manual, thicker than a Microsoft Word for MS-DOS manual from the 1980’s just to set a car clock. Pffft. I can’t be bothered, plus I have this watch on my wrist which keeps good time.
I have not synced my latest phone with my car either. That requires another manual. I don’t miss that either: the fancy car dash won’t read me SMS texts until the car stops moving and I don’t like talking on the phone while driving. Everybody calls while I’m driving, mostly robo call spam. They can all just leave a message if it’s important.
So now, I’m collecting manual typewriters. More analog. I really don’t have a use for them but there is something reassuring about a device that can still function completely without electric power and without connecting to the Internet. You put in paper, hit keys and it just works. And it does not track you, spy on you, report back to the mothership or show you advertisements.
I really don’t have a use for typewriters, but I’ll try to find some or at least one. There must be a use.
And so it goes. Maybe I’m tired of adapting my life to technology. Technology should adapt to the way I want to do things. It’s supposed to make life easier, not harder. It shouldn’t require a manual to set a clock. I shouldn’t have to memorize 6 levels of car dashboard menus written by a moron or figure which cruise control levers plus the turn signal stalk I have to click so as to navigate said moronic menus. Because I have better things to do with my fecking time.
I’m not going completely analog. I’m not going off the grid. After all, I have to go online and order new ink ribbons for these typewriters.
