Building Moxie (another outtake) Two things that woke me up in the middle of the night last night

The internet and the opposable thumb

My junior year of college, 4th year in real time, I was at Towson State University and I had settled on English as a major with a loose concentration in Writing. At this point, I was writing some for the school paper, I had a full-time waiting tables gig, and I was of course keeping up with my course work. My second semester at Towson, Style in Non-Fiction (or something like that) – and one point applies.

I don’t recall the total number of papers we were responsible for during this class, but the year was 1991. For, let’s say, the middle project that semester, I submitted a poorly conceived and poorly executed article on technology and the opposable thumb.

The broad premise of it was this: as technology advanced the population in general would move away from doing things with their hands (in the traditional sense), and that, in some ways, was not desirable. Now, with only a 100-level anthropology class under my belt, could I have possibly been qualified to write such an essay? No way.

In these cases, most good writers will turn to experts in related fields to provide credible info and perspective. Did I in this case? Nope, not a good writer I guess.

I got a C on this paper, and if I remember correctly that was probably generous. Still, I got the impression some way, some how that the prof was somewhat put off by the idea. I guess – her professional interests might have overruled her first love -- the game of tennis.

I wonder if today, being of the same physical capability, she dedicates more, less or the same amount of time actually doing that endeavor that she loved so much.

Writing is re-writing and . . .

The question really is -- has technology freed up time for you, or has it taken time from you?

Let me know what you think. Can technology, over the past 18 years, and the most widely advanced child of it, the internet and its mobile offshoots, be credited with a diminished use of your hands (in the traditional sense)?

Don’t mind your one thumb that probably isn’t doing anything much as you do not comment below.

Sorry about side tracking. I will be back on the story of Building Moxie, sprinkled with a little more about home improvement and the internet, tomorrow.

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More Moxie:

Props (though maybe unrelated) to @Make (Make Magazine) for their “Lost Knowledge” component: http://www.makezine.com/

The school formally known as Towson State University: http://www.towson.edu/