Where time stands still, free from technology: a reflection on the Carpathians
I often
feel that I was born in the wrong century and belong in a different era. I
can hardly keep up with modern times, things are changing so fast. I know, I
sound like Brooks from The Shawshank Redemption – but don’t worry, I don’t plan
on topping myself (belated spoiler alert: sorry if you haven’t seen it).
Oh great,
another technophobia-themed rant
Regular
readers will no doubt be familiar with my posts on technology and its failings and
my slavish adherence to Ludditism. I’ve long been a fully-fledged, paid-up
member of the club. I don’t want to rant and rave yet again, but I had a few
thoughts and reflections as I spent last week hiking and biking in the cool,
fresh air of the Carpathians. (in western Ukraine, for my non-local audience)
Now, I’m
all for innovation and progress but…at what cost? The modern world and its
gadgets confound and overwhelm me. And I know that every [good] artist has to
change his canvas at some point, but…after a certain point, it all gets a bit
out of control.
Look at the
world we live in:
New gadgets
like super-duper high-tech Android phones, tablets, social networking, Twitter,
online communication, online education slowly replacing face-to-face contact, the
decline of real conversation, people glued to their phones, downloading apps
(I’m not even sure if I’ve ever used an app, I always thought it was short for
‘appetizer’), the lack of privacy, solipsism (look at me, look at my photos!),
constant distractions from Twitter feeds, our phones buzzing – fact, these
technological distractions do make us dumber. Here’s the proof:
Thoughts on
Twitter – which I don’t use – seems great for the first hour or so after a big
event, and dangerous after that, with endless speculation, rumours,
fear-mongering…and how news has changed. It used to be that journalists and
news networks verified, double-checked, triple-checked their sources. These
days? ‘An unconfirmed report from Twitter suggests that…’ Now, any piece of
‘news’ is broadcast immediately without anyone bothering to check its veracity.
We’re
impatient, demanding instant gratification, instant news, nobody wants to wait
anymore. After all, why should we, when it’s all right there at our fingertips?
Look at the
decline of the album – nowadays it’s all mp3s and singles and Youtube. Our attention
spans are short.
One of Dr
Wasabi Islam’s favourite expressions: ‘Delayed gratification is the surest sign
of maturity.’
That’s it:
humanity is immature these days.
Just some
of the consequences:
Identity
theft, medical fraud and stealing others’ benefits, our privacy invaded, cyber-crime,
our details hacked, viruses, bots, malware, nanotechnology out of control, artificial
intelligence, cloning, 3D printing of guns and humans organs and god knows what
else…
There are
also the known unknowns: all the crap that we’re completely unaware
of.
What’s
next?
The
financial world – mark my words: in the next few years, one of the biggest
terrorist attacks known to mankind is going to be a purely financial-related
one that will make that recent $45million bank cyber heist look like peanuts.
Half the world’s banks are going to get hit, wiping out billions, even
trillions in seconds, and we’ll all be f***ed. Someone with the expertise is
going to launch an attack that dwarfs all others.
As it is,
we’ve already got an endless array of arcane financial instruments, jargon that
no one understands - CDOs, Bitcoin, complex algorithms, flash crashes wiping
out billions of wealth in mere seconds. The last financial crisis, in 2008?
That’ll be nothing compared to what we’re in for. Get your money out of banks,
don’t invest in the stockmarket, put your money under mattresses.
I know we
all have to adapt and get used to the changing times. Technology even affects
English teaching – I may be out of a job in a few years if I don’t learn to
adjust. Workers are getting laid off left and right because they lack the
technological nous to cope in today’s world. Shape up or ship out, as they say.
Shut up
already, what about the Carpathians?
How
refreshing last week was as Olya and I headed west to hike and bike in the
mountains. Yes, it’s a cliché, but the Carpathians really do feel like a place
where time stands still. It’s quiet, peaceful, full of fresh air, gorgeous
flowers and splendid panoramas. We stayed in the charmingly pleasant little
town of Yaremche.
I turned my
phone off for the week. No internet, no TV, not even a camera…no distractions,
just peace and quiet and lots of walking (and eating and drinking). So
peaceful, purposely getting lost in the hills, walking through forests
aimlessly in the general direction of somewhere.
The camera
thing…would love to share photos, but I didn’t take any. I don’t even have a
camera at the moment. A colleague the other day was saying about how today,
people don’t really seem to live for the moment, everything is through a camera
lens: kids’ school plays, childbirths, live gigs, big occasions. Why don’t we
just put the cameras away and enjoy the moment for what it is? I remember going
to live gigs in my teens and early 20s – the most technologically advanced item
on display was a lighter, for crying out loud. I remember the joys of rummaging
for live bootleg cassettes in record shops – now, go to Youtube, and there it
is, all captured on camera for our convenience.
I guess I’m
just a nostalgic old fuddy-duddy.
I haven’t
posted holiday photos on Facebook in about 4 years now.
Look, I’m
getting distracted myself here.
So, to sum
up, we had a beautiful time out in ‘the nature’ (as my students like to say, I
find it endearingly cute, it’s translated literally from Ukrainian &
Russian), it was relaxing, full of vigorous exercise; it was fascinating
watching the farmers in the fields with their old horses and ploughs, and I
particularly enjoyed stumbling across so many tiny little ‘churches’ and
shrines in the middle of nowhere, standing alone in fields; seeing farm animals
like chickens, cows, pigs and horses ambling about aimlessly without a care in
the world; wondering what people do with their free time, if they’ve even got
any after farming (later cynically telling myself that they probably lock
themselves away in dark, musty rooms engaged in cyber-crime – Ukraine is, after
all, a global hub of it); picturesque vistas with old, crumbling houses nestled
in the hills and valleys; a cosy, comfortable, incredible value-for-money hotel
with epic, sweeping views of the countryside from the balcony; enjoying
sparkling sunshine with barely a cloud in the sky, with cool breezes up in the
hills, and the refreshingly clean alpine air; being greeted everywhere by
friendly old villagers and various country bumpkins; eating sumptuous, hearty, fresh
and cheap local Hutsul cuisine; stealing a terrific Hutsul-themed wine goblet
from a restaurant because of the lousy, rushed service and the fact that the
waiter never brought me change; rewarding ourselves with cold beers after
energetic days; being squirted by men on motorbikes on the Monday after Easter
in the western Ukrainian tradition of water squirting day; walking perilously
along rickety, creaking bridges with train tracks (think ‘Stand By Me’) over
rivers; taking a slow old granny train to Voronenko, one of the tiniest train
‘stations’ I’ve ever seen – I adore old, slow-moving trains; and hearing the
soothing, lulling sounds of Ukrainian, which is so warm and so noticeably
different from being surrounded by Russian all the time. I came back from the
trip determined to give up on Russian and go back to Ukrainian, which I last
studied 7 years ago when I lived in Lviv.
(I wonder
how long this kind of lifestyle can last.)
It was a
great holiday, away from the hustle and bustle of modern life, free from
technological distractions, with plenty of relaxing and rejuvenating. I came back
refreshed and full of energy.
I even
managed to find some time to read.
On my Kindle,
naturally.
Disclaimer: I’m a Luddite. I still
listen to cassette tapes.
For more on
my love of train travel, look here:
(You’ll
need to scroll down to ‘Back to my
summer of 2010 travel recap – sort of’)
For more on
natural beauty and how we view nature here are my musings from Kyrgyzstan from
2009:
For more on
the ‘water squirting day’, along with pictures:
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