Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts and Culture Reporter
April 28, 2016 12:40 p.m.
Technology gets a bad rap but there are distinct and unexpected benefits. I can give you a couple of examples – call them the etunes and ebooks examples. I bought an iPod unintentionally and an ebook reader deliberately. First the iPod story.
My garage door opener needed a new battery so I took it to Radio Shack to have them install one. How is this going to relate to iPods, you ask? Just stay with me. Once the battery was installed, I asked if there was some kind of connector to allow an iPod to play on my radio. (My grandson’s request.) The young man (and aren’t they all anymore?) dashed off and returned with a small connector that would allow the iPod to use the radio. My next comment was “now all I need is an iPod.” He dashed off before I could tell him I was kidding. He returned with an iPod Nano. Somehow I couldn’t tell him I didn’t want one. So that was how I got my $110 garage door opener battery.
I found the iPod has two benefits. Now when my family inquires as to what I want for a birthday or Christmas, I can tell them an iTunes gift card. The other benefit is much more useful. With the exception of the Eagles album “Hotel California,” I have never bought a CD and liked all of the songs on it. With the iPod, you can buy only what you enjoy.
Emboldened by my iPod success, I decided to try an ebook reader. My theory with most new technology is to start cheap and see how much you really use it. So I bought a bare bones Nook from Barnes & Noble. The good news is that you can have a book whenever you want. The bad news is that you can have a book whenever you want. No need to get in the car and drive anywhere or buy online and wait for it to ship. Call it literary instant gratification.
An unexpected benefit of the ebook reader comes when I travel. No longer do I have to pack several books. I have a single reader with many books. I can’t get too smug about that as now when I travel, all of my technology has to come with me – devices, chargers, etc. Still they probably weigh less and take up less space than solid books.
Technology can have benefits we didn’t expect because we have been conditioned by what we have been using. While I still buy physical books and CDs, now my new technology devices have given me choices and new ways to do things.
Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.