Comic Strip.

I have had a laptop since I was twelve, so I could play sims and watch movies on long road trips. I've had a laptop longer than I have had a cell phone. I love my laptop, I've taken it to the bathroom before, at home it would sleep in my bed with me, and when I go on trips it of course travels up front with me. I do everything on my laptop now, even my math homework. It controls my mood, if the internet isn't working and I don't get to see all the cute puppies, clothes, crafts and what not on Pinterest then I am grumpy. Similarly when I miss my shows on television for a silly "severe weather warning" I become very upset. My television and laptop tell me all thats going on in the world I don't need a newspaper anymore, and I can now read all my Charles Dickens novels on my fancy Iphone. I don't need to interact with the human world, Siri will talk to me. I don't need my mom to remind me of my homework that is due, I have Siri for that. I don't need to ask Mamaw for the recipe for her delicious italian cream cake, I can just google that. I have waited in an hour and a half long line with 150 other crazed nerd for Harry Potter and Batman releases, and yes I was dressed up, but I won't wait 15 at a restaurant to eat. I have never felt like I my life was being controlled by anyone like in George Orwells "1984."

There isn't a single person that I feel has any real control of my life, but when I'm sitting in my dorm alone with daunting chemistry problems and Pinterest up I know who has one: my laptop, again. 

Now I've been to Ghana and they're happy there; without their laptops and pooping in troughs, but not me. I need my indoor plumbing, movies, airconditioning, cell phone and above all my laptop. Technology hasn't taken over everyones lives, their are still Mamaws and Papaws out there like mine that only have a television for their grandchildren and big blue madness, and there are poor areas of the world who can't take in the luxuries I have been blessed to have. For me though, I live in a community and a lifestyle where the things I love now have a control over me, a pull on my priority list, and I really don't think I want that to change. Its not hurting me: all of my homework has been turned in on time thus far, and I have yet to loose sleep. My technology will never tell me to harm anyone, keep me from living a full life, or restrict what I do, usually it only makes it easier. I could cheat on a test with my laptop, I could find a friendly nerd to write a paper for me, I could hack my neighbors laptop camera and spy on them. Technology opens up a whole other world of possibilities of things I could do, and never tells me what I can't do. No big brother here, only a million more possibilities to distract me from the outside world.