By John Duncan Jr.
A few months ago, my wife, Vickie, and I were walking across the UT campus headed toward the Clarence Brown Theater to attend a play. I had checked my phone several times, both on the days before the play and the day of the play, to make sure our tickets were still there.
As we neared the theater, I made sure the tickets were on the screen, and everything was fine until we got about 50 yards from the door, and a box appeared, blocking the tickets, saying, “You are now in Eagleville, PA.”
As far as I know, I have never been to Eagleville, PA. In fact, until that moment, I don’t believe I had ever even heard of the town. I looked it up and found that it has a population of 4,800 and is a suburb of Philadelphia.
I have been in Philadelphia a few times, the last being when we changed planes there on our way to the 2024 Republican Convention in Milwaukee. Maybe we flew over Eagleville that day.
I thought I was going to have to throw myself onto the mercy of the staff at the theater and hope they would believe that I really had bought tickets, but just as I opened the door, the box saying I was in Eagleville went away as magically as it had first appeared.
I really miss the days when you were given paper tickets for everything. I admit I was spoiled by my staff when I was in office, because they handled all the computer stuff. I didn’t have to be addicted to my so-called “smart” phone.
I think my phone knows I don’t really like it, so I have had other things temporarily or permanently disappear, such as the parking pass for a UT basketball game, tickets for a UT baseball game, a Celtic Women show in Louisville, and a Celtic Thunder show in Pensacola.
Most of the time, it does work, and so far, I have not lost a plane ticket yet. I have enjoyed buying many books over the internet, and the GPS has really helped when we have been in other cities.
I do wish that someone had told me early on to come up with one simple, unforgettable password. Friends and family trying to help me over the years have punched in several different passwords, and this has occasionally been a problem.
I recently saw a cartoon which said, “Shoutout to everyone who can still remember their childhood phone number but can’t remember the password they created yesterday. You are my people.” My childhood phone number was 5-1267, and then became 525-1267 when Knoxville first had to lengthen its phone numbers.
I admit that I am very low-tech. My homes and offices have always been filled with books, and I spend most of my life reading a wide variety of topics. I don’t know what public relations genius came up with the words “computer literate,” but I have noticed that some, maybe many, people who are computer savvy are dumb as dirt about everything else.
I do think it is good that some countries and school systems have started to ban cell phones from the classroom. In a newsletter to my constituents in July 2015, I wrote the following under the title “Screen Addiction.”
“Many people, young and old, have become addicted to their laptops, iPads, cell phones, and other technology. I have spoken to a great many groups of young people and have frequently told them to see if they can occasionally pull themselves away from the very addictive screens and help out a live human being. Their lives will mean more to them if they do.
“On June 27, the News Sentinel carried a Chicago Tribune story which said ‘technology – computer games, online shopping, social media — has led families to stay more isolated and less community-oriented than ever before.’ Also, several studies have found that many young people have trouble interacting with others person-to-person because they have spent so much of their lives online.
“I have noticed that the same grandparents who will brag about how computer-savvy their own grandchildren are will fuss about teenage employees not being able to make change. I believe it would be good for all schools to have one ‘technology-free’ day per week so students could learn traditional subjects, be creative, and think for themselves instead of having machines do it for them.”
“Also, even doing this just one day a week would save a tremendous amount of energy. Almost every study has found that the children who watch the least amount of television do the best in school.”
I think these words written in 2015 are just as applicable today, although I would now add video games to this last sentence about television.
Unfortunately, being so low-tech and trying hard to spend less time on my phone has caused me to miss the nicest invitation I have received since I retired. A nice young woman, whose name I either did not see because of all the ads or did not recognize if I did see it, sent a very kind invitation to my wife and me for the White House Christmas Party. The invitation email did not say “White House,” but came from a staff member I did not know.
One day in January, when my son, Zane, was helping us with some plane tickets, he said, ”Dad, did you know you were invited to the White House Christmas Party?” I felt terrible because Vickie had never been to the White House, even for one of the public tours. She could not have been sweeter in forgiving my big flub up.
