MY DIGITAL VIRTUAL LIFE

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After I’ve completed the ‘real-life’ chores of walking the dog, eating breakfast, listening to the local weather report, and pouring my first cup of coffee, I walk into my home-office, place my smart phone in its charging cradle, and turn on my Macintosh Mini . As soon as the icons appear on screen, I click on my personal log-in avatar (the artist’s palette) and enter my pass code.  The Mac makes a few clicks and whirrs, the screen saver comes up (a picture of my sleeping Chihuahua), and my program aliases magically appear in the dock at the bottom of my monitor. I click on the Firefox icon (I hate the Safari browser that comes pre-installed as part of an OSX ‘bloatware’ package) and I enter the comfortable realm of favorite sites that I have bookmarked for easy access.  I begin with the charitable clicks on ‘The Animal Rescue Site’ and ‘The Breast Cancer Site’. Banking is next. Banking online is the bomb. My bank is only two miles from my house but it is so convenient to move my money around and pay bills online without the hassle of writing a check, or the expense of an envelope and stamp, relying on the USPS to get it to its destination. Then I check my Dashboard to see if anyone has up-voted or replied to my comments from the previous day. I check for new posts from a blogger in Belize, and one in California who are funny, keep it light and emotionally detached. Next up are my favorite Atheist blogs. It’s so nice to know that there are others with similar experiences and beliefs as mine, especially ‘Godless In Dixie’ who lives in my subdivision. We see each other occasionally but connect daily on his blog. I also follow a pastor (jimrigby.org) in Austin, TX. Go figure. After that I move on to the political blogs, one in Alaska, one in the LLANO ESTACADO, and several others obviously located in the US but without a specific regional or state address. Then I migrate to VOX where I get more varied, sophisticated, and professional news from one of my favorite real life political reporters, Ezra Klein. Next, I open up my Facebook account to see if anyone has commented or ‘liked’ my posts before I share the next cartoon ‘of great social import’ that I’ve found on-line. (I love to post the clever or misspelled signage from retailers.) Then I click on each of my 25 friends’ (mostly family members) FB pages to catch up on whatever is going on in their lives and download photos of my grandchildren, (which I later transfer to my smart phone so I can show my friend and hairdresser how big they’ve grown at my next hair appointment). I scan Twitter for pithy comments and statements and any digital photography that I can use for my screensaver program. Or I collect black and white pictures from my Twitter ‘follows and followers’ which have historical significance that I can archive. (I have no idea why this seems like a good thing to do.) After that, I check my online purchases and track their delivery schedule. Lastly, I click on the AppStore ‘updates’ to make sure my computer has the latest and greatest for it’s operating efficiency. My coffee has gone cold so I pop the remainder in the microwave and give it a good 45 second re-heat and finish up my morning online with a quick game of Klondike Solitaire. I’m usually done by 9:30 am. Finally I put my Mac Mini into ‘virtual sleep’ mode. To maintain a clean email inbox, I check my emails on my smart phone throughout the rest of the day. Sometimes my sister texts me, or my son will call. I have a Bluetooth headphone so I can make up beds, wash dishes, cook, or sit on the back porch, for hands-free convenience. I remember when the best mode for staying in touch was the telephone but that was expensive at the time and not everyone could afford one. Today it’s almost impossible not to be connected to the digital virtual world. With all the new gadgets from Google, Apple, and the advances in miniaturization and battery life, I expect to eventually be fitted for my ‘implants’ so I can be completely connected, every minute of every day, to my digital virtual life.