I can’t ever imagine myself using an ebook reader. Kindles or schmindles or whatever. Newspapers are going out of business on a daily basis. Everything is miniaturized including language so it will all fit on a tiny hand held screen. I hate it. I am becoming a luddite. The whiz kid is reverting to dinosaur.

I simply can’t imagine breakfast without my newspaper. Yeah sure I can read them on-line but I don’t want to; it’s not the same experience. I want it full size. I want to feel the paper in my hands. I want to fold the pages. I want to doodle in the margins. I want to rip out an interesting article and save it for later. And let’s be frank here, I can’t imagine taking these electronic reading devices into the bathroom.

I like books made of paper. What’s the first thing you do when you get a new book? Smell it of course. You know you do; ah, the scent of fresh book – nothing like it. And books are portable; so are newspapers. You don’t have to plug them in or worry about their batteries going dead. They are always ready when you are. Something about reading words on paper, it holds my attention. I can’t read more than a few short paragraphs on the computer. I get impatient; I get annoyed. The print is too small, if I make the print bigger then you can’t see whole sentences and the letters are distorted. I’ve been trying to read this blog post for days. The subject interests me but after a few paragraphs my eyes start to roll back in my head, I get bored and twitchy. I read an article in the NY Times recently on Tesla so this post was of interest, unless I print it out I’m never going to read the whole thing. Pity.

10 – 12 years ago I would have killed for a smart phone; now I have no need for such a thing. I just want my cell phone to make and receive phone calls. I use it so infrequently I might as well not even have one. I’ve got close to 5000 roll-over minutes in my account.

Remember 20 years ago when when AOL and dial-up was pretty much the only game in town? And you were billed by the hour. The internet was a more interesting place then I think. Elitist, yes. It required a certain amount of money to have a computer and an internet connection. I loved my chat rooms – filled with interesting people and interesting conversation. Intelligent conversation that over time degenerated to a/s/l.

I just don’t have the stomach for the internet anymore. I’m over it. I’m over computers. I just can’t excited about the next big small thing. 40 years of computers and the thrill is gone.