Crypto, Schmypto

Each of Us Draws a Line in the Sand When It Comes to Technology

“Crypto, Schmypto,” I say to myself, when…

An email alerts me to yet another story about the untold bounty of cryptocurrency.

I’ve skimmed pieces that explain what cryptocurrency it is. Some include how and why I should buy it. Others exhort me to invest it, spend it. This particular story is about how I can earn it.

No offense meant to the author, Rui Carreira, who bills himself (accurately, I suspect) as a “full-time blogger teaching you how to improve your Medium experience,” but I can barely get past the sub-title.

Mr. Carreira, hats off to your tech knowledge, your creativity, and hard work. I’m sure I could learn from you and make more money on Medium. But tokens?

I’m not there yet, and I’m not sure I want to be. I’m still trying to figure out how money can be “digital” and yet counted in “coins.” Why is cryptocurrency “mined” in the first place? It’s not real; it’s a “system of value.”

And how can something so futuristic be, at the same time, such an anachronistic energy hog when it’s “manufactured.” Or do I misunderstand? Are cryptocurrency “factories” powered by sun and wind?

Never mind. I’m not sure I want to know. Worse, I might not comprehend.

My Line in the Sand

Crypto, Schmypto! Someone very, very close to me is from a country whose t government is trying to encourage crypto-spending “IRL” — in real life. Seriously, folks, grab your virtual wallet. Buy a pupusa and a coke with a crypto coin!

Crypto, Schmypto! In the nineties, when writers were still delivering “hard copy” to editors, it was at times daunting and frustrating for this aging Boomer to imagine life in cyberspace. Virtual communities. Online stores. A social venue you click on to enter.

Crypto, Schmypto! I’ve managed quite well so far, thank you. I saw email as a great first step. And like John McClain, I instantly loved “the Google,” too. It felt like a gift, a world of information, always at my fingertips.

A decade later, I studied Web 3.0 as a reporter. When I started researching Consequential Strangers in 2006, Facebook was young. Outlining the book, my co-author and I (neither of us digital natives), initially gave “online relationships” a chapter of its own —as if relationships were either high-tech or old-fashioned.

Within months, it was clear that the Internet was becoming just another “place” where all kind of relationships could and would play out. Just before the book went into print, we added “Twitter” as the most recent example of a popular “social media” platform. Pinterest and Instagram didn’t launch until 2010.

All that was lightyears ago in Internet time. What was once disorienting is now as normal and necessary as breathing: signing on, “chatting,” sending words, images, and ideas to each other in uncountable many ways.

Even commenting about it makes me sound….well, old.

And now crypto and AI and VR and …. whatever’s next. I’m not sure I’m ready to don a pair of Oculus goggles and explore the metaverse!

Crypto, Schmypto Redux

For the past 30 years, thanks to digitization, I have watched publishing migrate online. I was — and still am — a writer wanting to be read. To that end, I dabble in social media, but I’m not very “good” at it.

Of course I’d love a battalion of followers and endless retweets of my words, thousands of strangers clamoring to read me. But as I wrote in “The Audacity of Hype” more than a decade ago — and it’s even more true today — odds are, that’s probably not going to happen.

Still, I’m not immune to the lure. Occasionally, when I read articles about upping my game, I’m tempted. If I put my mind it it, I could at least become better at social media and search-engine optimization.

But when I look at the suggestions — the hashtags, the key phrases, the spreadsheets, the analyzing and tweaking, the selling of my firstborn — I’d rather have someone else do it.

I take breath and ask myself the same question, I ask about cryptocurrency: Do I need to learn about this?

The truth is, I’m already in touch with more fans than I encountered during decades of book tours.* New readers discover my writing every day.

* To Millennials and younger: Publishers once flew promising authors around the country to visit actual bookstores where they could meet fans in person.

I do my best to keep up with technology. After all, staying “current” is a prerequisite to healthy aging.

To a point. Time is the most valuable resource; it never gets replenished. Getting the hang of tweeting isn’t necessarily how I want to spend time. (I feel the same about studying French!) I enjoy writing and editing, not promoting.

Everyone draws a line in the sand. Last March when her great-grandchildren presented her with iPad for her 103rd birthday, my much-older friend Marge had a similar (but not her first) moment of truth about technology.

Marge’s grandmother was scared to be in a room alone when the radio was on. And while Marge isn’t frightened of her iPad — which still sits in its original packaging — she doesn’t need it or trust it.

Llikewise, I don’t need to learn or earn cryptocurrency. Dollars will do.

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