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By Lorie Ann Simpson
To put this in perspective, I am 52 years old. When I was a little girl, I woke up in the middle of the night with a stomach bug. The kind of sickness that only a Ginger Ale or Sprite would help, but unfortunately, we had neither. We lived in a small town, so no all-night convenience stores existed. I remember my sweet daddy leaving the house searching for a “pop” machine, as we called them. And he found one.

Fast forward to last year, and I was unfortunate to catch another stomach bug. We had no “stomach bug” supplies such as popsicles, chicken noodle soup, Gatorade, or Jello. But I had a Walmart app that allowed me to order all those supplies and deliver them to my house within hours.

We have come a long way since I was a little girl whose daddy was driving around in the middle of the night for a Sprite. But are we better for it? It was my saving grace when I was sick and couldn’t leave the house to get what I needed. I wonder, though, has that made me even shyer than I was because I tend to have more and more delivered? Does ordering online and having it delivered (never having to talk with an actual person) make me anti-social?

The world we live in with all this technology is truly incredible. I am very thankful my husband or my kids can reach me no matter where I am and vice versa. But does so much technology hinder us in some ways? Do we really need a car that can drive itself? Or to log in and see our house and surroundings through a camera while we are away? Or do we really need Alexa to turn on and off our lights? Or a car that will brake on its own to keep you from running into something (yeah, that is neat, and I have needed it a time or two)?

My husband and I are taking a weekend getaway to a little cabin at the end of this month. Even though there will be Wi-Fi, we agreed not to turn on the TV the whole time we are there. We are going to write or read books and reconnect with each other. But with all this technology, I will worry less about my kids while we are there because they can reach us anytime.