"The Computer"

Show me the world

Let it unfold

I’ll not say goodbye

Until the day I die

It’s hard to resist

When will I desist

This electrical screen

With all its gleam

One day I’ll fall to dust

For all it’s a must

I’ll be gone

Yet this computer lives on

      As finals week once again begins, I find myself glued to my computer producing papers, presentations, and other scholarly things.

Reflecting on all of this, one really does spend an extraordinary amount of time staring at a computer screen in college. I actually found the little poem above from my high school folders, but looking at it again, the poem seems to have more weight now than when I first wrote it.

As a prospective CS major, I already spend plenty of time working on computers for my coursework. But even outside of that, I've realized that much of my free time and energy are invested on the internet. Of course, I even wrote the poem on a computer, and the irony of that doesn't escape me. 

To be sure, we've created an awe-inspiring machine. But after a long day of typing, researching, and programming, I can't help but feel that a certain kind of fundamental energy is draining unnaturally fast the longer I spend staring into my computer screen.

And so I've recently been planning out my days and studies on paper as much as possible. It's going to be a long finals period. But among these student woes, there are valuable lessons to be learned: priceless lessons on perspective, and on where our time goes. It's time that we'll never get back.