Sarah Nigbor

Dave Beck’s column this week on the demise of deer registration stations got me thinking. What else is gone or has majorly changed that, in my opinion, isn’t necessarily better. The answer is, a LOT.

Before I dive into my curmudgeony list of things technology has ruined, I will say there are some things that have evolved that I do in fact enjoy. Online banking and bill paying is top of my list. Grocery pickup and/or delivery is a close second. I despise grocery shopping and find it to be a huge waste of time. I don’t like waiting for a woman pushing a bulging cart full of food to slowly put her items on the conveyor belt, rummage through her purse for coupons, argue over the price of kidney beans rung up by the cashier and slowly count out nickels from her change purse. No, no, no and NO. I also don’t like walking through the aisles searching for something you can’t find, then it shows up in the most idiotic place that doesn’t make sense.

Sorry for the tangent. I really hate grocery shopping. Can you tell?

One of my favorite Christmas traditions has always been sending and receiving Christmas cards. Not many people send them anymore and I find that irritating. Maybe the cost of postage is a deterrent. Maybe they feel they don’t have time. I know most people in my generation do not send them and definitely not the generations younger than that. I find it sad. It’s a treat to receive something in the mail that’s not a bill or political ad. It’s nice to know people are thinking of you.

Obviously, newspapers being replaced by websites and books being replaced by Kindles is not something I’m a fan of. Give me a newspaper or a real book any day. I don’t get a headache from blue light by reading those.

Another thing I hate is my kids thinking that texting someone very close to them “Happy Birthday,” “Happy Mother’s Day” or “Happy Father’s Day” is enough. That is the lazy way out. I make my kids call relatives on special holidays or birthdays or write them a nice message in a physical card that we mail. Texting someone for 2 seconds is not enough. That’s just checking something off the to-do list. 

Receiving concert tickets online is exasperating. There should be an option from ALL ticket sellers to get a paper version or email/app version. I went through such a rigamarole to get my daughter’s birthday present Smashing Pumpkins tickets sent to the right place that I was starting to think we wouldn’t be able to go. The original company had “released” them to the wrong venue, so it was up to me to track them down, submit a request for them to be re-sent and released, etc. It was a nightmare.

When I call Walgreens, my insurance company, the cable company, anywhere, I want to talk to a real person. It’s so much fun trying to make an automaton understand what department you need to speak to. Half the time the options they give you don’t correspond to what you need, or they send you to some ridiculously long “frequently asked questions” section to see if your question can be answered there, but it rarely is.

Giving my email address and phone number to every dang store upon checkout so they can send me promotional emails and texts can just go away. I don’t want to go through 57 hoops in order to get a discount, which requires them to fill up my phone log and email inbox.

And lastly, because my blood pressure is going up, I don’t want to be reachable via cellphone ALL. THE. TIME. People call and text at all hours of the day and night. No time is sacred. And they get mad if I don’t respond immediately. I read every email and text and listen to every voicemail. Sometimes I don’t respond if it’s already been taken care of and the person knows that. Other times, I just don’t have time to drop everything I’m doing and respond that second. Or, it’s 9 at night and I just need a break. I miss the days before cell phones made everyone think you had to be accessible 24 hours a day.