What technology would you be better off without, why?

I grew up in an era when it was important to be able to write by hand, spell, carry out calculations in the head, and to do without all sorts of technological advances – because they had not yet been invented. There are occasions when I wish they had stayed uninvented.

I have the technologies of communication many and varied, and certainly carry as well and truly beyond the days of pencil, paper, envelopes, postage stamps, snail mail and very expensive timed telephone calls (known as trunk calls) where you paid by the minute to talk to somebody at distance.

In communications terms we have come along way in a relatively short time.

The technological advances that have helped with communication and those that I can do without, are in the field of social connection.

I appreciate that technology has enabled me to develop a blog, to access LinkedIn, to read and sometimes contribute to News online, and so on.

I detest and abhor technologies which have facilitated the development of social media that in far too many cases is misapplied to denigrate, hurt, scarify souls, and reduce people all too often to a state of blithering behaviour because of total and utter put downs.

I will never have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, or any other social media accounts because so many people use them negatively. I think people who are on social media might have a propensity at times to published material that had they thought more carefully might not have been published.

As a retired educator I’m aware of far too many instances where young people particularly and others have been negatively affected by the sorts of comments imposed upon them by others. In my opinion for every one good thing about social media, there are at least twenty negatives.

I will not be hurt, nor would I think of hurting others through the use of social media accounts because this is an arm of technology that will always be foreign to me.