Day: November 28, 2010

“Oh, the games people computers play now” – and the loss of civility

Not “news” exactly but more of a Sunday morning “think” drawing from two of my favorite reads – and my frustrating attempt to purchase a few necessities yesterday and quickly move on to the next stop on my list of Saturday errands.

After yet another sweet young thing began asking for an abbreviated version of my biography, I confess to pleading “Can’t I just buy it?”.  I suppose that makes me one of the reasons today’s NYT asks if “civility…[is]…really on a rapid downhill slide”.

“To fail to be civil to someone — to treat them harshly, rudely or condescendingly — is not only to be guilty of bad manners…It also, and more ominously, signals a disdain or contempt for them as moral beings.”

OMG! I certainly did not intend to send that signal but neither do I want a relationship with another computer – particularly since the one I have with mine may not last much longer. Today it’s sending messages of a pending hard drive failure and I don’t know if those messages are real or just one of the “games” both computers and “people play now”:

When I change in a fundamental way, the people in my life inevitably change in relation to my change. Once my husband and I resolve the order-versus-chaos problem, he will have to find someone else to play the “I’m more orderly than you” game or give it up altogether. If his desire is truly to help me lead a more efficient and productive life rather than “trying to control me,” the two of us can move on to greater, more interesting challenges than this one on which we have been stuck for years.

I’ve never been one to play games but I have made a fundamental change in my relationship with my computer – a reliable “back up” of all it contains –  thanks to the wise counsel from non other than the latest post by friend-of-slabbed Vickie Pynchon.

If you have time, by all means, read both the NYT article and Pynchon’s post. Meanwhile, there’s nothing for me to do but wait and see if my computer is playing games. If it’s not and my hard drive crashes, be assured civility will take a rapid downhill slide.