By Misa Rush

I’ve recently developed a love-hate relationship with technology. Maybe I’m just getting old. However, there was a time when I embraced it. I can remember when we got our first Commodore 64 and also playing family Atari tournaments (I was the best at Video Pinball). The C64 is now comparable to the Ford Model T, sitting in a historical museum. There wasn’t much that I could do on it, although I impressed myself by programming my name to run in diagonals across the screen. Back then, games were fun, but they were only a portion of one’s daily life.

Now, my two-year-old begs to play with my iPhone. I hide it when I’m driving, both to avoid him playing with it and to lead by example. When my kids are sixteen and driving, I can’t tell them not to be on the phone if I do it myself.

For better or worse, technology is here to stay. Some things we can do with computers are amazing. For my kindergartener’s graduation ceremony, the teacher gave each child a DVD scrapbook video of their year. It brought tears to my eyes, and my daughter will have a keepsake for her lifetime. (As long as she upgrades it to the latest technology before DVDs are obsolete.)

In a twenty year span, we’ve gone from email to Facebook. We’ve gone from voice mail to Skype. Advertisements are specifically targeted to our likes, and our social accounts are frighteningly linked together. For instance, when I read an article on CNN.com recently, it showed me which of my Facebook friends also read it. (Insert Twilight Zone song here.) I worry about privacy. I worry about identity theft. I worry about radiation and brain cancer. Yep, the paranoia list goes on. But still, I sit here at a computer, typing away with both a cell phone and iPad by my side, and I love the fact that I get to share my simple thoughts with wonderful women like you.

How do you feel about technology?

Misa Rush competed in gymnastics for eighteen years, including four on a full-ride scholarship to Eastern Michigan University. She graduated from Arizona State University with a master's degree in business administration. She currently resides in Gilbert, Arizona, with her husband and two children. Family Pieces is her first novel. For more information, connect with Misa on http://misarush.com, Facebook and Twitter.