Do you remember those days when you actually had to pick up a phone and call someone to get in touch with them? When you would wait for the postman to arrive to see if anyone had written to you? When you taped songs off the radio and waited impatiently be the record store for a new album to be released?

All we need today is a computer and fingers to type. I can order food, cigarettes, clothes, toiletries (continue endless list) with the click of a button, "talk" to people via IM, no everyone's moods, activities, last meal on Facebook, follow random celebrities and their rants on Twitter and download music whenever and wherever I want. You can even date someone online and have a "relationship" without physically touching them.

But does it all really make life easier? When was the last time I was able to relax completely? Free my mind of everything and just ENJOYING life? 8 months ago when I was driving round Bodega Bay with my brother. No computer,no cell phone signal - just the sun, the ocean, my brother and my thoughts.
I don't want to find someone I may or may not like on Facebook, and then follow there every move. What happened to mystery and discovery? I'm tired of walking around with my phone in my hand just in case someone tries to contact me. Why should I feel the need to respond to every text and email I receive immediately?

I miss those days when I would write a handwritten letter, mail it, and wait for a response. Or when I would call home from a phonebox, making the most of those precious minutes before the money ran out. Waiting impatiently for my photos to be developed and the excitement of looking through them, remembering random pictures that I had forgotten I had taken. Randomly bumping into friends on the street and organising improvised nights out then and there without having to set up a Facebook event and send it out to a thousand people.

Why did making things simpler just make them all the more complicated?