Linda Schmall
English 111/11
Dr. Bujak
Explaining Relationships
Project #2 1297 words
My Narcissistic Liaison with Applied Science
Friends come in various ages, colors, shapes, and sizes. A friend of mine named Mac can be considered a square, and is in a strange sense of the word, a geek. We’re like two pees in a pod, Tweedledum and Tweedldee. It doesn’t matter that we’re both slightly outmoded. We like being together. I’m happy to be close to Mac, and Mac’s face lights up when I come near. Mac is always predictable, understanding, and available when needed. Entertaining, best describes our regular collaboration on all sorts of projects; using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, we create, design and manipulate digital images. We have a grins_and__giggles time together. On a more serious note, Mac keeps me up to date on the weather, and local and world affairs. Mac’s reference resource data is unrivaled. Mac satisfies more than my egotistical needs.
Some people have contrasting friends for divergent adventures. It’s not like that for Mac and me. My relationship with Mac is my portal to society and the world. Together we travel to unique places of auditory and visual stimulation. Looking for inspiration in art and other enlightenment through numerous visits to U-Tube, we have had laid bare before our eyes: “ Tidal Waves of Light and Love, Acceleration of Consciousness, and Everything in the Universe Is Energy. ” Mac is “sweetness and light” and a gentlemen. Opening doors, windows, and vistas to great knowledge, Mac is indispensable in my search for the unique and the inspiring, the bizarre and the beautiful. Mac is more than a go-between for me. Mac is my interface, my interpreter, my muse, my teacher, my doctor, and my therapist.
What more do I need?
It’s easy to tell you why my relationship with Mac is ideal and works so well for me. First, we don’t have to small talk or maintain a verbal conversation. We immediately get down to whatever it is we are going to do. I can be as focused, pedantic, and unapologetic as I like without having to accommodate Mac in any way. Second, when I want to be spontaneous and eccentric, Mac follows with ease; there’s no explaining, debating, discussing or reasoning why. Silently supportive, Mac patiently waits idly by when I am confused and perplexing over some decision. Mac listens but ignores my occasional off-the-wall comments and repetitious phrases and cuss words. Mac is not threatened by my physical gestures of frustration. We have a relationship built on trust.
For most people, it is impossible to acquire everything needed physically, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually from one relationship. Some people’s needs are more diverse and voluminous than others. Mac and me, we don’t need much. Mac gives me what I need and want. I input. Mac gives back interactive content that promises enticing and exciting design and adventure. Our relationship is built on my desire to manipulate, create, explore, expand and know more about everything. Mac is a collaborator, an advisor, and a cherished friend. No persuasion or social grace is necessary. Mac takes me to places of word, sound, light and motion, without discussion, question or hesitation. Mac brings nothing to the relationship that I don’t ask for. We are in total agreement. How many relationships do you know that are that simple, thought provoking, inspiring, productive and rewarding? What more could I ask for?
Mac is almost the perfect companion for me. Mac is not exclusively a tool to me. I have always been better able to relate and manipulate objects, than I am able to relate to and persuade people. Maybe I am more like a computer, my needs and desires geared towards my ability to comprehend, manipulate and interact with environmental materials around me. Before intrigue with computers, interaction with the outside world, came through the intake, creation and manipulation of thoughts and words, resulting in acts of reading, writing, drawing, building and painting; acts of communicating face to face with people, usually transpired, on a have__to basis only. With Mac I can read, write, draw, build, and paint electronically; not only is it a lot less expensive, it is using much “greener” methods; limiting my carbon footprint. On top of that, I can communicate with people without having to be face to face. Could my life be made any better than that?
Although my favorite computer relationship is with Mac, my first truly awe-inspiring look into what technology could bring to a relationship, and the dining room table, was served to me in the 90’s. My now obsolete hybrid Pentium 1 Windows 95 system, during the make__ it__ yourself revolution, was a have__ it__ your__ way, made to order system. The first day I used my Windows 95 hybrid, I traveled on the “information super highway” (Internet) for fourteen hours almost non-stop, only occasionally halting for necessary rest stops. On a journey like no other, I felt like Gulliver visiting extraordinary lands. Invigorated by viewing the vistas made available through a few clicks of the “mouse”, I was smitten.
Technology and interactive content has traveled far and grown wide since then. U-Tube, gaming sites, chat rooms, and group forums, have all become accepted and standard ways to interact and communicate. Although wizards still exist, we’re not in Kansas anymore. Technology itself, society’s view, acceptance, and desire for technology, and ultimately my relationship with technology, have come a long way since the 1960’sand 70’s. Once only available to the federal government, mega corporations and Rockefellers of this world, technological gadgets have become invasive and ubiquitous in the western world. Symbiotic in character, Society’s acceptance of technology gives value and credence to its development. Desire for, availability and usage of technology, gives rise to society’s dependence on it. Dependence on computing technology reinforces non face-to-face, relationships with machines of all ages, colors, shapes, and sizes. Machines with electronics have taken a front door approach to the supplementation and enhancement of social relationships. People are tethered to cell phones, beepers, and PDA’s. Networking, blogging, and instant messaging, all play a role in reinforcing non__physical, face__to__face social behavior. Even so, society’s dependency and use of technology does not venture far from surface satisfaction. My uniquely strange relationship with Mac goes deeper than normal and is reinforced out of intellectual, psychological and intrapersonal needs. Why do I have an irresistible fixation on Mac?
My kinship with technology, via my relationship with Mac, aids me in my ability to better function on this planet, or maybe it doesn’t. Is Mac my Raphael (healing angel), or is Mac my Behemoth (Demon of indulgence)? At one point in bygone times, an obsessive relationship with anything might have been considered abnormal, mal- adaptive and taboo. Not any more, or maybe just a little. It is well known that some obsessions can lead to great inventions. For example, Bill Gates probably eats, sleeps and drinks Apple. Is my relationship with Mac built on an obsessive-compulsive need? Are Mac and me twittering, goggling and yahooing our way through life?
Although Technology has been integrated into cultural routines, I daresay that anyone else gets as much as I do from a relationship with a personal computer. Mac and my relationship is incomparable. Amongst all the white noise, people are distracted by their cell phones, beepers, PDA’s and laptops. For me, all this is a welcome relief. For amongst the hustle and bustle, I can breathe easier, satisfying my narcissistic need to liaison with Mac and be thankful for all the modern day Connecticut Yankees (techno- geeks) around the globe that have made Mac a reality and my soul mate.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks goes out to Corey Heinz and Diane of the NMC Writing Center.
Corey Heinz was a great collaborator and persuaded me to embellish and distort the truth to get my thesis across more clearly. Any word or phrase that can be attributed directly to Corey, and would not be something I would have stated on my own, has been underlined. The most helpful advice Cory gave me was to stay focused on the relationship, not why there is such a relationship. Because of Corey’s direction, I cut out a lot of technical material and replaced it with more personal information. After our meeting on October 6th, I did not change the organization or move any elements as suggested by Corey.
Diane of the Writing Center liked my initial paper (the one with all the technical information (see first draft)), and gave me encouragement to continue. I am very thankful of that.
Peer review felt like the blind leading the blind, and although I did receive a few suggestions from them, they were not used in any way, shape or form. Maybe by the end of the Semester my peers advice to me, and mine to them, will be more effectual.
