Technology...can you live without it?

Technology, we consume it like its water and then rely heavily on it sometimes much like addicts!  I say this because last night after I got home from my commute from class to come home, study and do a little be of catch up on my work from my day job my technology malfunctioned big time.  This left me feeling stressed, cranky and overall very unhappy. 

My desktop would start but freeze, my laptop would turn on but the screen was black.  I had essentially spent the time I had dedicated to being productive to trying to trouble shoot by myself and then with technical support.  I went to bed feeling defeated, and with the feeling that I had lost control of the things I felt I needed most to do the tasks which I had intended to do.  In my various states of frustration, I realized that really I could still do most of what I wanted to do last night, I should have just shifted gears and accepted that there was a problem but it couldn’t’ be fixed at that moment.  I realized I was fighting the inevitable and trying to win by trying to ‘fix’ my technical issues myself.  Now that I am writing this I know that there is a temporary solution to my problems and that in the meantime while these issues are being fixed I will make a bad situation into an opportunity!

Do not get me wrong here, I still require my technology (laptop, smart phones (yes plural), camera) however I do not need it all the time, the world will still go on and so will!  I am not going to go all crazy and do a techno-restricted fast, however I will do my best to unplug a bit more and do some things the old fashion way!  When I get my technical issues resolved I will hopefully try to keep this resolve moving forward!

How has technology affected your life?  Are you a junkie or recreational user?  What is your favourite gadget? What piece of technology could you live without for short period of time?  Have you ever done a technology fast where you unplug from everything (no cell, computre, smart phone etc)?