Last Sane Man Standing - Blog of Corey Deitz

"The 'Come Hither' Look of Technology"

June 17, 2007

I got tired of all the assorted frames on the wall in my home office so I ripped them all down, spackled and repainted the holes left behind and mounted a brand spankin' new 14-inch digital frame.

It is centered on my wall, rectangular, black and white, and hopelessly perfect for displaying everything.

Digital frames are amazing: you can plug a portable USB drive containing copies of all your favorite photos, pictures, and graphics into a slot and they all become framed - instantly. To update the frame's contents simply unplug the USB drive, plug it back into your computer, update that, and plug that back into the digital frame.

So, now the contents of what were formerly housed in dozens of mismatching frames are all rotating in a quiet, endless slideshow on the wall in front of me.

And I should be content. But, I have concerns.

Do I do my memories an injustice by relegating them to all now reside within some digital, high tech gadget which is almost sterile in it's functionality?

Do I lose some humanity by tossing out the old frames which so dutifully cared for my memories up until now?

Each one of those old, tattered frames were bought and paid for at a time in my life when I probably needed the money for something else. But, certain memories require immediate attention and when you frame a photo it's a personal declararation that "this one's important".

I wonder now if those frames aren't as important as the photographs they have held for so long? My mind achieves, but my body houses my mind. Those old frames are like the skin that houses those memories.

Will we ever know when we have reached the point where the seduction of technology has begun to displace our humanity - or is it already happening?

I love technology - but it worries me.

And technology knows I am weak.