NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Yes, it's true. I resist change - well, at least to a point. And that's true in many areas of my life.
You may have read my oft-repeated comments about film and film cameras. Even though I shoot thousands of digital photos each year, I still like film and, on occasion, leave my digital camera at home - or at least in my pickup truck - and head out with a film camera and light meter to take photographs the way it used to be done. And, yes, you'll still hear me say film offers more image quality if processed correctly and printed without digitizing the image and throwing away all the quality. But, then, in a day when most folks use their cell phones for all theirphotography needs, who's looking for negatives which can produce large highquality prints? And besides, finding photo labs which will still work with film is more of a challenge than the photography itself. So, I've acquiesced to the times and shoot digital more and more, even if it’s for fun and not work.
I don't know how many times I removed the SIM card and went back from my smart phone to my old flip phone because my old phone worked so great for what telephones were once used - phone calls - but now it's a rare thing for my kids to call me. Instead, they'll post to Facebook or maybe send me a text message; and answering texts is hard for a newspapereditor who likes to write in compete sentences and spell out correctly each word when all he has to work with is a telephone keyboard requiring pushing numbers again and again to arrive at the appropriate letter - I usually had to go around a second or third time to stop in the right place. I still loved my old flip phone and resisted change as often and as long as I could, but now the SIM card in my smart phone won't even fit in my old flip phone. I guess that means I can't go back.
Just to show you that my resistance to change is not a new thing related to my age, I'll tell you that I was probably the last officer in the sheriff's office where I worked in the last century - that sounds like ages ago - to carry a revolver. In fact, when my well-worn military semi-automatic was deemed in need of replacement and the semiauto carried by most in the department wasn't available, I returned to carryinga trusted revolver and felt safer for it. I had more options in duty ammunition, and an ammunition failure didn't cause a weapon failure - something I saw plenty of times at the range when I took officers out to qualify with their new highpriced semi-autos.
All this pre-ramble leads me to the focus of this column - my resistance to using social media to keep in touch with kids and friends. Yes, I signed up for Facebook and Twitter but just didn't like the experience. The more friends and followers I had, the more information I had to wade through to find out what my kids and grandkids were doing. And, when I did find out what they were doing and saying, I wasn't always too pleased. In fact, I think I was happier not knowing and reading some of the things my kids and grandkids posted. Didn't they learn anything from me?
Well, I've signed up and shut down accounts a number of times. I thoughtI could get away from it all and talk to my kids on the phone and send them letters or emails. But, you know, kids and grandkids don't answer their phones anymore and most haven't learned to write a letter. I think my longhand missives in cursive, when I got around to them, appeared to be written in a foreign language to a good part of them. At least I never heard back from most or got the slightest inkling that my letter was received and read.
Even when I tried to be liberated from social media, Mrs. Griz kept asking me if I saw the photos of this grandchild or that son's or daughter's post. My answer was, "No, I didn't hear or see anything because my account is closed." I then had to view the latest news and photos on Mrs. Griz's phone or computer. And when she had technical issues involving her account, I had to be her computer geek and show her how to do what she wanted done.
I resisted and tried notto use social media sites but couldn't avoid them and couldn't keep in touch without them. And so, for all you friends out there who must think I unfriended you more than once, I didn't; I just went away for a while. But, I'm back.
Though I didn't think I could live with it, I'm finding that I can't live without it either, at least not if I want to stay in contact with my children, grandchildren and friends.
We live in a different age than the one in which I grew up. I'm not ready to give up on the good things of the past, but I guess I'll have to make use of the things of the present too;
and that includes social media to stay in touch with those who don't know how to answer their telephones or write a longhand letter in cursive.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by email at rmoll@ nwaonline.com.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 09/19/2012