Slow Computer Movement

Today I have a special guest speaker, or columnist rather, for you.  Here is the one and only Professor Cindy. . .

Everyone who has used a computer is familiar with the little bars that run across the screen in a rectangular box to indicate that your computer is processing a command to send an email or find a website. Or maybe you have a little string of dots that circle continuously until the connection is made. Without looking can you tell what color those bars are that move across the screen? Or which way do the dots circle, clockwise or counterclockwise? If you don’t know you are one of the privileged folks who has such a fast connection to the World Wide Web that you don’t even ponder this. Faster and faster connectivity and information at our fingertips is something many of us have become dependent on and generally take for granted.

Remember back in the day when we were excited to have such a thing called Internet. We could send electronic messages by simply pushing a button. Slow wasn’t an issue, just the very fact that we could do such a thing was a marvel. Human ingenuity…. faster is always better … or is it?

A Fulbright Scholar, I now reside in Mweka, Tanzania. I have all the modern conveniences; running water, electricity and computer connectivity. With the click of a mouse I can send an email to colleagues in the US or surf the net. Well, that is if the server is working and the electricity hasn’t missed a beat. These days I find myself clicking the mouse and waiting. Yeah waiting. No, I don’t mean the annoying finger tapping impatient waiting when connections are slow or the server bogged down. I mean wait. Sit back and contemplate life wait. No use being in a rush wait. This kind of wait looms with possibilities.

‘Connection timed out’ means click the refresh button and wait. Wait for the little bars to connect. Smarter than the average computer, I open up multiple windows and get them all waiting. I watch lots of bars prance across my computer…waiting. Surfing here is attempting to dance the jitterbug to a waltz; possible it just requires a different frame of reference.

What do you think of while waiting for a computer to respond to the command you have cast on the internet waters? The bars briefly march across the page and viola you have connected to your bank, the latest news or countless websites. Perhaps you were thinking about passwords or something else, but it likely wasn’t a consciously thoughtful wait. Imagine now the possibilities if you had a longer wait. Oh, the things you could think and do between marching bars! Time to read scholarly articles, time to compose emails off-line, time to make a phone call and perhaps time to write articles like this.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Slow Food Movement. Eating your food slowly allows you to savor all aspects of foods’ social and nutritional sustenance. Likewise the newly convened Slow Computer Movement (this is the inaugural introductory invitation to join) allows you to capture the time lost computing and put it to good use. Think of all the nanoseconds you have wasted waiting for the computer to respond, watching little bars prance across the screen.

The next time you find yourself watching the bars or circle take a moment to reflect on what a marvel it is to send messages and surf the net. The Slow Computer Movement (SCM) is about appreciating and savoring computers and connectivity. The core values of the SCM are patience, gratitude and good humor (tolerance). I f you find yourself wolfing down websites, impatient with even the slightest of delays and little or no gratitude for the technology wizards that keep us connected than you must join the SCM.

Benefits of SCM include:

· Increased productivity (less useless surfing)

· Increased quality of relationships (more time face to face; fewer hastily cast emails)

· Greater appreciation for technology and the role it plays in our lives.

· Time to enjoy slow foods

· Improved mental health, attitude and outlook on life

Remember the core values of SCM. When you have fully attained these values you are a member in good standing of the Slow Computer Movement. So sit back, pick up a book (remember those?) and wait. Maybe you can even enjoy some slow foods while enjoying your slow computer. Hamna shida (no worries in Kswahili) will become your mantra.

Lest you think this is a critique of the slow computing system of Tanzania, you are dead wrong. It is instead an appreciation for all that we have in the US for computing, most of which we take for granted. So instead of impatience when the bars march too slowly, consider the wonder of being able to email across the world in nanoseconds and perhaps relax enough to allow space in your being for patience, gratitude and good humor.

Written slowly and sent in nanoseconds via the internet… amazing.