Is it just my life or does everything require a plug anymore? Are there no transactions between humans that aren’t electronically negotiated? We can argue about the emotional ramifications and the privacy implications and many do* but my question du jour is: What in the ducks does all this cost? Every rechargeable device, every plug-in, every screen both ultra-wide and handheld small—they all draw on the grid. And, unless we go total hamster and self-charge our TVs with treadmills mounted on dynamos**, we’re all using energy. Lots of it. By replacing boring old passive materials with interactive, multi-sensory, energetic versions, we could be getting more efficient (maybe), more accountable (some cases) and easier (often) but the conversion is not cheap. More and more, I’m thinking, turning stuff into e-stuff is not the most sustainable way to go.
This idea has been nagging me for a while but another piece of the puzzle clicked when I saw a recent New York Times front pager on the costs of cloud computing. If you haven’t already perused the article, you might like to take a peek at its tales of secrecy, wastefulness and pollution in this just one aspect of our E-Age. Since I don’t have the investigative resources of the Gray Lady, I chose to tackle this thorny topic by philosophizing and noodling instead, which, for the most part, is still free.***
Let’s start with those ubiquitous email footnotes that primly suggest the non-printing of things that don’t need to be printed (“save a tree, don’t print me!”). Add to those the well-intended platitudes from organizations “going green” by turning every interaction into a digital endeavor. To me, gestures like these feel both like “not enough” and “missing the point” in semi-equal measure. It’s a bit like the push for CFL bulbs, saving energy upfront but leaving the sizeable problem of the mercury component for another day. I haven’t done the math (just give me time—and a really big abacus!) but it does seem we could be missing the global forest to save the local trees. By upgrading/converting so many interactions into high-tech exchanges, we have created an economy even more dependent on energy than before. Is this really where we want to be or just where we’re told (sold) we want to be?
Take, for example, advertising. (Puh-leeze!!!) The energy super-sizing of marketing continues to proliferate. Billboards become video billboards. Directories become moving screens. Buses and trains “upgrade” from flyers to kinetic images. We exist in a landscape that constantly beckons and flirts while Philip K. Dick laughs (or cries) in his grave. And it appears we’re paying a high price to be wooed this way. We can argue over psychic impacts, but it’s undeniable that all these shiny sales vehicles need power, lots of it, merely to operate. They glow therefore they be…a drain on the grid.
It may seem like an externality (if there’s a plug, we have the right to use it—power source be darned) but there are real costs and real trade-offs. Not to pick on the footwear industry (not me!) but what does it cost to have a glossy monitor indicating where the shoe stores are at the mall instead of a simple poster? And don’t get me started on video games vs. skateboards, iPads vs. bicycles, Kindles vs. picture books. OK, since I started down that hoary path, here’s my Back in the Day example. Walking to the public library to do research gave Much Younger Me: 1) fresh air—or the NE Philly equivalent; 2) exercise—a meandering stroll; 3) interaction with actual people, not 3D versions—yes, grumpy librarian included; and 4) completed homework—maybe not up-to-the-minute news but information all the same.
Our children can go to the computer after school and never leave!
And speaking of the distraction, I mean, the entertainment industry—boy, do they have us where they want us (everywhere, that is.) Desperate to fill any moment with tiny hits of byte-sized engagement, we carry our e-toys in fear of unscheduled boredom. The CrackBerryesque shots of pleasure from each tweet are addictive but let’s admit, often superfluous.
In the meantime, we’re dealing with issues of global conflict and planetary sustainability in order to feed this electronic maw. (And here I am typing instead of planting bulbs!) To make a small difference and partially offset my blogger’s guilt, I’ve been asking myself even more, do I really need to use that e-device to accomplish that task? Do I need to waste energy by distracting myself with that screen instead of using my own power to do something plug-free instead?
As a card-carrying techno-flexitarian—I blog but refuse to routinely carry a cell phone— I already tend to be a critical thinker when it comes to the role of Big T. And while it’s true that not having me available by phone 24/7 does drive my husband crazy, heck, that’s no reason to give in, right?
I mean, you gotta start somewhere.
*Me!
**There’s an idea…heading to the patent office right now. (There might be a line.)
***Not counting the electricity I squandered writing, editing and posting this blog entry. Let’s see, carbon credits per word, carry the six, subtract the good intention, alrighty…looks like I owe $2.95 to my daughter’s grandchildren. In 2060 dollars, of course.
More on mercury in CFLs:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-compact-fluorescent-lightbulbs-dangerous
More on dopamine and technology:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-bootcamp/200907/techno-addicts
RIP, Ray Bradbury!
1920-2012
Copyright 2012, Lori Fontanes
What the Ducks! 
Great post, Lori; definitely food for thought. LIke the one I keep having – OK, so now we’ll go to electric cars. That’s fine and dandy that we will use less and less of a non-renewable resource. Unless, of course, we’re burning oil or gas (or worse, coal) to create the electricity we need to plug these vehicles into. Right? Or am I crazy? I firmly believe we need to move more and more to sustainable energy sources – solar, wind, geothermal, and to a lesser extent biomass (what inputs does it take to grow the inputs for this energy source input?), but I agree that we should all be looking at the biggest picture possible to try and make sure that we are not creating even more inscrutable problems down the line. Just my two cents, but perhaps more food for thought.
Yes, it’s lot to chew on! Thanks for adding to the conversation…it’s so important, I think, that we all work on this together because it’s that big & complicated a picture. I also think that those of us (no names!) who happen to have lived through this conversion and remember what the world looked like before, have a special obligation to keep talking. Not all that glitters is gold; not all that is new is an improvement. It feels like we’ve been a bit passive in this global reworking, as if we didn’t haven’t a choice or a say or an option. But we do.
And never mind all of the resources used to build these cars. All the shipping of parts. The mining of rare earth metals. It is mind numbing. But the average person drinks the Kool aid and thinks they must be better. The auto industry and the media tell us so, so it must be true.
Do not despair! If we’re still talking, there is still hope. Also, I think we’re all–depending on the circumstances–“average” joes and jills. Even me–I was easily the worst email offender 10 years ago. (So sorry for all those things I forwarded, people–please forgive me?) So it’s never too late to stop and think. Just like we’re doing now! Thanks so much for reading and sharing.
The question is: why isn’t this a major mainstream interest just yet?!! It should be.
Working on it! 🙂
😉
I do think our reliance on technology is alarming. I don’t have a smart phone and the cell phone I do carry around is off half the time—so getting in touch with me can be hard. I like it this way, but I’m definitely the exception to the rule. I don’t want to be connected all the time, but in a society that is becoming increasingly digitalized, this doesn’t make sese to a lot of people.
Good food for thought in your post. Congrats on being FP!
Thanks for sharing! I do think each person has to make their own decision on what works best for them but the more information, the better choice. Keep thinking/talking/re-thinking/reworking. It’s a big discussion so all hands on deck!
I found the NY Times article very interesting. I’ve never even thought about where all that data gets stored or how much energy is being used to keep websites and such up and running. I’ve always just thought of the energy to power my one little laptop, not the energy from all the servers that my laptop use depends on. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Reblogged this on Loose Lips Theatre Company.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. How I agree. But if you’re going to quote Ray Bradbury, let me quote Isaac Asimov. Or at least paraphrase. I’m not sure which novel, it’s been decades. But I think it might be ‘The Gods themselves’. (“against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain”)
In the novel, Asimov’s character says you can’t ask people to sacrifice what they’ve become used to, and what makes their lives easy no matter how good it would be for the planet (in this case it was cheap power I think) unless you can replace it with something else. Progress is wonderful, I wouldn’t go back to handwriting my articles but I know I’ve lost something in the translation. Progress is a two edged sword. We’re on the electronic highway and like people in Asimov’s world, nobody wants to get off no matter how good it would be for the planet and for future generations. Good post. And congratulations to you on being Freshly Pressed.
Ah, yes, Mr. Asimov! Another RIP! As you can probably see, I grew up reading SF, immersed in visions of the future and now…the future is here. Hmm. What’s next? I agree with you about typing vs writing but maybe I could possibly write more/better without an Internet connection teasing me constantly with its possibilities? Thank you very much for reading and discussing. It’s so important to keep this conversation going & I appreciate that you took the time to respond!
You have to know that the same evening I responded to your article, I came home to find a ‘brown out.’ One of our neighbours told me that that’s what it was. I’d only heard of a black out before that. Lori, I couldn’t read because even the lights that were working were at half mast; I couldn’t write and I couldn’t watch tv. I went to bed with the chickens.
Oh wow–what a coincidence! Hope the lights are back on (and the fridge…) I guess going to bed with the chickens isn’t so bad…said the woman who wakes up most mornings with the ducks!!! 🙂
Thx for sharing your update!
So many things can be powered by solar or wind – those garish billboards and street lights to name just a couple, can easily be switched to solar if they’re using LEDs. We’ve had solar/dual powered calculators for quite some time (20 years or more); why not our phones? Yes, I realise that smartphones draw a lot more power than a calculator but then solar technology has improved over the years too.
For a much longer time, there have been watches that charge themselves based on motion. My grandfather and my husband both had watches that worked that way. Considering the fact that almost everyone with a phone takes it with them everywhere, couldn’t we use that technology too?
The technology is available – we just have to start using it!
Thanks for your comment–this is a huge discussion and the more inputs the better! I guess one of the things I wanted to highlight/examine/debate was the issue of inevitability and technology as always signifying progress. If you take a very long view–in either direction–we can see how vastly different human life has been and is likely to be in the future. But I think this is possibly the only time we’ve been able to wreak planetary havoc (and I don’t necessarily mean climate change alone.) As Spider-Man would say, with great power comes great responsibility. I am not convinced that technology per se works only good nor is it inevitable that there will always be a technological solution to every problem.
I appreciated your third footnote. “We must use less electricity and fewer electronic gadgets!” types the blogger on her computer connected to the internet announcing her thoughts to the whole world at the push of a few buttons.
I think the issue is not so much about electricity, to be honest. I mean, okay, if we replaced our constant connection with our 135 Facebook friends with three or four genuinely deep friendships, it might make a difference. But there is still the fact that whether we communicate in person or via device, there is still a cost in energy. I cannot easily go visit my friend who lives a state away without spending a large amount of fossil fuel. Even if he and I lived very close to each other, unless we live just a few houses away from each other, it would expend some kind of energy to meet. If I walk to see him, I will burn calories, which I will need to replace (well, maybe I won’t NEED to replace them, but I’ll feel like I will), and so I will need more food. More food consumes more of a different kind of resource.
I think that in the end it all comes back to the notion of it not being so much a problem of energy consumption as it is about population. I saw the statistic not too long ago that at the time of Julius Caeser there MIGHT have been as many as 300 million people WORLD WIDE. The US alone has surpassed that number now. Each person alive needs energy to live, and energy to have relationship with other people, whether it is in the form of electricity or calories or fossil fuel or whatever.
Thanks, Brandon! These are truly thorny questions but it feels right to be asking questions. Re: the long-distance friendship thing. It’s interesting–we have become both closer and further away from each other and technology has played this role for a long time, certainly before the Internet. In “Technopoly”, Neil Postman quotes Sigmund Freud who laments the railroads that take his child away from him. Yet, Freud notes, he can send a cable[gram] to find out about someone who traveled across the ocean. Technology gives and takes away but, yes, it does indeed give. For me, it’s also about choice and not always having to worry about opting out. I think it’s fair to say that there’s been a certain lack of information, even transparency about this pact we’ve all been opted into.
By the way, congrats on being freshly pressed!
Came completely out of the blue–I was thrilled! Thx again!
what a superbly written piece! It s in our face and yet we look right through it…thanks for sharing your thoughts on the vital issue of the grid-draining life we are heading towards. And congrats on being FP 🙂
Thanks!!!
BRADBURY!
And if you really want to freak out, read (again) Fahrenheit 451. I did not too long ago and recognized in the little seashells the depressive/disconnected wife always wears, the literary precursors of ear buds. The book came out in 1953! Now that’s visionary (and what I love about SF)!
You’re right. Where does the power come from for electric cars, cellphones, etc? Fossil fuel, mostly. Except here in New Zealand, where we have hydro. Mostly. Do we think about the power we’re using? Not often enough, I fear. Or where it goes – do we think about how it all becomes heat, one way or another (via entropy and thermodynamics). Not often.
Great post – got me thiniking,
…that’s exactly what I hoped for so thanks so much for letting me know and keep on noodling! (PS, I have no perfect set of solutions only lots of questions.) 🙂
You bring up some great points. My personal opinion on electric cars is this: We are in a transition and it takes time. The loss of emissions into the atmosphere is a plus, the less dependency on foreign oil the happier I am. The temporary trade off of straining the grid is worth the overall effort. It is a young industry, developments and refinements will come. The use of technology is necessary to calculate, engineer, design and perfect.
The cell/tablet industry is here. There is no stopping it. More and more the desktop computer ( my personal favorite ) is becoming obsolete. Most laptops will be next. In my city there a numerous drop off points required for their ( and many, many other electronics ) disposal. The trash people will not take them from the curb. Recycling has become a way of life and I think that is one of the highest pluses on my list.
I’ve had a cell phone for years. Used to be it because I ran 2 businesses with employees at both places, it kept me in touch moment by moment, able to advise, make snap decisions while I wasn’t able to be there etc. Things are different in my life now. I like having my music at my disposal, I like having all of my contacts listed, I like being able to check the weather in the small city in Italy that I will be visiting for the 1st time in May 2013.
Finally and most important for me was the cell phone call I got a few years ago while shopping on a Sunday morning; ” Your sister went into Respitory Arrest, she coded on the way, is in Trauma ICU on Life Support, come quick.” While still sitting in my car in the parking lot I was able to contact other sisters, put a meeting place together and we all took the 1 hour drive together to be by her side. It took a week to pull her through, she survived and is doing great now, but my point is that life can change in an instant. There is never a warning. Cell phones do have their down sides I agree but I won’t ever go without one again.
Thanks for opening the dialog and allowing me to voice.
First of all, let me say that I am so happy to hear that your sister made it through! There is not doubt that technology can be a life-saver or, at the very least, a comfort in certain circumstances. (And I, for one, have no interest in going back to the days before Novocaine, for example!!!) So I’m absolutely not saying anything absolute here. These are all individual decisions in a period of, as you rightly say, transition. But reliance on a technological solution can be a tricky thing. I have known situations where people could not function even with cell phones readily available–what you bring to connectivity matters as least as much as the device itself. And service drops out, blackouts occur…I want to be able to function off-the-grid as well as on it. And, more importantly, to use it, not let it use me. Maybe rather than debating whether “there is no stopping it”, I’d like to suggest that we could also talk about “how do we shape it instead of letting it just shape us?”
Thanks so very much your thoughtful comments.
My biggest dream is to have a small plot of land and a home that functions completely off the grid! I’m with you 100%. !!! That would be my ideal. Besides lightening up off the grid, the cost savings alone would be huge. I actually could think about retirement! 😉
Amen!
*children of the corn voice* don’t fight it; join usssssss *a-hem* It’s definitely different from yonder years but in all seriousness, this is the beginning .
I did enjoy reading this but I must point out the irony of your post about technology when you typed it from your computer and everyone who supports you is also online.
I did like it though!
Thx so much for reading/commenting! And for COTC ref–been wanting to use it as a blog title during harvest but ran out of time (always next year!) I am totally with you on the irony thang (see third footnote in my story as well as my other technology pieces). If you can’t beat ’em, blog ’em?
There was an article recently where they showed what the world would be like if everyone on the planet lived like Americans and it was pretty sobering. (http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2012-10/daily-infographic-if-everyone-lived-american-how-many-earths-would-we-need)
The thing is that live a very tech-y life but I think that it does let us live more streamlined at times. I mean, when was the last time you or anyone printed out an email? Then again, I have three computers at home that I regularly use. It’s a hard balance I think we all face (certainly me): to not be a Luddite but then again to not need every whiz-bang gadget.
Oops…I printed out an email just the other day! A hotel reservation, it was easier for me, oh, I am sooo busted! 🙂 But seriously, I think you’re absolutely right about the balance thang. As I get older (yikes!) and having worked through a museum’s worth of computers and devices, I don’t feel the same stress to get the absolute latest of everything. Genuine advantage in technology doesn’t come everyday, as we’ve certainly seen recently. Now if something breaks, I fix it. But otherwise, I don’t worry about upgrading all the time and save a little money to boot. Heck, that 3 year old laptop–it’s not obsolete, it’s vintage!
Ha – my wife has issues with me trying to salvage and repurpose *everything*
“I can turn that old laptop into a media streaming device and…honey? Honey? Where’d you go?”
It’s partly because I can’t stand seeing things go to waste and partly because I think that it makes me feel slightly Mcgyverish. =)
McGyver Lives!!!
Great post!! Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
Thank you so much!
You might find this interesting … and alarming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazzoom%E2%80%93Brookes_postulate
It creeps me out sideways every time I think about it and all of this “green” BS.
Yes, interesting…the marketplace has become such a complex system (among many interconnected systems) in our super-sized world, it’s difficult to see how things will play out. Including best intentions. But I’m reluctant to throw out the idealism of the green impulse with the mismanaged or misunderstood bathwater. We have problems; we need solutions. And we need people to speak up when we’re veering off course. I hope we can also get those folks (me! you? others?) to roll up their sleeves and start tackling, too. We can get to better outcomes faster the sooner we get on the case. Thanks for joining the conversation!
Great post! I’d like to link this to my FB page. I stay as far away from e-devices as possible. Still with the computer and phone but naught else.
Thanks for extending the conversation into the FB zone!
Great post, Lori! Lol, and I so remember the library. Where you had to actually look up in card catalog where the location of a book would be!
What, did they take those out???! 🙂 Darn! Another piece of my childhood bites the dust!