I may even survive on this planet for a longer time than those who’ve adopted modern technology. Because I prefer paying attention to what I’m doing and to the places where I’m walking instead of whatever is coming through earpods, headphones and mobile phones that block out any awareness of what’s happening in the real world around me.

In other words, “Hang up and walk!” It might even save your life, particularly if you’re crossing a busy street.

Are people afraid of being alone with themselves? Afraid of being part of whatever’s around them? Are their insecurities such that they need absolute control of their environments, so they default to predictable music or talking heads? I’ll admit to not being the best meditator on the planet, but I appreciate calm silence. In fact, after a lifetime of one-on-one work with opinionated people, I sometimes I crave it. Sounds like the control tendencies that I appreciate run counter to those of the vast majority of the general population.

Having said all that, I’m not a total Luddite. I’ll admit that years ago I was late to email, websites and blogs. And now I still hang on to these technological antiquities. But for the most part I’m a user of whatever communication tools we have today, even the ones that prioritize typo-strewn comments in all lower-case characters in place of actual real-time verbal conversations.

But I’m still a bit slow on the uptake with Podcasts, YouTube seminars and the like. Why? Because I still read – and I can absorb more information more quickly by scanning a piece of writing than by watching or listening to an electronic facsimile of a real person conveying whatever they think is important. A friend recently sent me a screen grab of a Zoom session. Among the 20-odd headshots in the image was the top of my head. I was fast asleep. One-way communication tends to have that effect on me.

You can’t question a broadcast. It’s a one-way speech that someone is trying to download into your consciousness. Sometimes it’s a focused firehose – too much to absorb in too little time. Other times it’s like a soaker hose in a garden, feeding us what someone else thinks we can absorb. But too much broadcasting is that garbage truck emptying its load in the city dump or the tsunami with the trash of thousands of others being dumped into your head. In a two-way conversation, you’re an active participant in the download, controlling its flow and putting particular pieces of information in particular parts of your brain. You’re a librarian with shelves that you can conveniently access when you need to. The one-way speech I do enjoy? Reading. Books, newspapers, package labels, even the few remaining printed magazines in the world.

My concession to the current century is that I absorb most of my information online. And yes, I’ve seen the studies that tell us that we retain less of what we read on a screen than what we read from paper. But that’s life. Hell, I’ve even broken down my resistance to eBooks, since I’ve sold a bunch of them [ad break here – after you’ve finished this piece, click on jpmaney.com/shop]

I don’t use my social media for bitching, moaning and defaming world leaders. That’s pretty much restricted to my morning coffee with friends by the side of the River Lee. Chat isn’t software, but a way of enjoying life. Satire and irony don’t work online, but they’re an essential part of coffee shop culture. [Pub culture, too. But that’s for later in the day.]

There are creatures living on this earth that retain their prehistoric characteristics while adapting to survive in today’s climate. Maybe I’m not a dinosaur, but a platypus.