No time for technology

If I were a TV presenter I would say: For today’s current occasion, a special show to present an annoyed Karin. For a week now I have a fitness tracker. I really wanted this device. It should measure how fit I am, how fast and far I can run and swim and how my pulse level is. And for a week now I’m annoyed by this thing. I can just adjust everything. The display color and the arrangement of the screens, whether the water in which I swim is a swimming pool or the ocean and how long exactly I sleep at night. But I do not want to measure anything, the thing should do it. Meanwhile, I scream the part.

Technology Tourette

Mr. Kling would say I am suffering from the same “technology Tourette” as he does. I do not just curse my new wrist tool. I also scold all my other devices. If any update comes up, if the sync fails, if a drawing is not transferred, if the rogues of iTunes again throw my own and not bought from them music from my library – I get upset. Thats because I do not want to waste my time with settings, syncing and loading. I want to run, swim and work. “Need” and “wanting” and even skills are rarely as evident as in the subject of technology. More precisely, the technical devices that determine our everyday lives. In any case, mine. I’m a freak in technology and that did not come with an iPhone or other important device. I do not always have the latest device and I do not feel like updating to the latest serial numbers, but I want to know what the thing can do for me and how it works. In 1984, my then boss brought a Macintosh (that’s what they called the things at that time) from America. I would not have liked to leave the office at all. The Mac could do things that we designers needed, it improved our job remarkably. I was fascinated by almost everything that popped up on the market. The fascination is long gone, slowly but surely the whole tekkie thing annoys me. The first Mac came without user manual. Steve Jobs had the idea to make everything intuitive and self-explanatory. But this is long past history now. 

Dependence

For our upcoming circumnavigation technology is indispensable for us. Yes, we can also set a course without a chart plotter and yes we can read nautical charts. But we have it all on board; all the stuff that makes sailing easy. Sat nav, plotter, a barograph and all the software and all required apps and software. But the vessel is just one aspect. I will set up a small office with a large monitor, keyboard, Wacom, various pencils. An iPad on which I draw when I’m on shore, a smartphone, a fitness tracker and the camera equipment with all the fuss are also on board. The German-language manuals for this stuff alone have 2.348 pages. A GoPro is easy to use and I do not need the instructions. But has anyone ever set up a Garmin fitness tracker? It’s no fun. All the time I have wasted to setup this thing, would have been easily 3 hours of sports. If I go swimming with it soon, it will certainly take another hour, because I can choose everything – literally everything. Length of the track, countercurrent, water temperature. But I do not want all that stuff. I want to wear a thing like that but keep it simple. D`accord to  insert my size, the weight and my age. For my part I can also measure my stride, but further the damn thing shouldn’t ask more. It shall simply do his job. I do not want to have to do a training with every update and I want to be sure that everything that was going well before and after is still working. The reality? Before I run a Mac update, I have to read the forums. Do all my software still run afterwards or do I need to reload things, how about syncing? Seriously I will take a manual with me to my next vacation to update myself to long-known editing program, in order not to miss any feature.

Attention deficit

Yes, its annoying. My dream to be less depending from the technique on our upcoming journey will probably remain a dream. I do not want to pay attention to any operating system but to the sea, the nature, the weather and above all the people I will meet. I hope and am working for, not to get annoyed from this time-consuming nonsense but lie in the hammock with a book and hear the water rippling instead. / KB