In this day and age, it’s something most of us have paused to think about. Is life really easier with technology? Well... maybe. It all depends on how you use it.
There's been such a push in technology for the last few decades, it's easy to overreach. There are all sorts of gadgets out there these days promising to streamline your life. Sync your palmpilot up with your computer and automatically copy over your work files, emails, schedule, shopping list, etc. etc. Everything you could dream of and more can now be synced up, integrated, and digitized. But do you really need that? Maybe some people do but I sure don’t. It would be vaguely nice and come in handy every now and then… perhaps. And then you factor in how much work and money it would take to get those gizmos to sync up and share data properly. Don’t forget to figure out exactly what data you want to sync and how to get just that data. And are you really going to blindly trust everything worked okay before you head off each day? No, you’re going to sit down and make sure the important stuff is still there.
The other problem is it’s not always up to you to choose your own technology. At school, work, and sometimes
But is technology to blame for all these headaches? In part, yes. But I think the lion’s share of the blame falls on our own expectations. Think how hard life was 100 years ago and how slow things moved. Now imagine having the same timeframe for deadlines as back then, but with today’s technology. Talk about the easy life! I can see myself napping in my hammock already. But in reality, we have to compete -- faster, better, harder, stronger. Still, it’s worth thinking about. It could do us all good to use technology more sparingly yet deliberately. Make things easier, not just fancier.
2 comments:
Joe,
Everything you wrote in this post resonated bigtime with me. I know I'm kind of technophobic and a Luddite, but, really, we can get so seduced by these gizmos, (as you call them), and, yes, they're expensive! You didn't mention fretting about losing them or having them stolen. (Should I leave my laptop in my car or schlep it with me . . .)
It's exhausting, all this wondering about what we need and how to use it and how to preserve it, whether to update it/upgrade it.
My favorite line in your post is the one about using technology deliberately. That's what I am going to tell myself from now on. I will use technology deliberately.
Thanks for saying it all so succinctly and clearly. You would be a terrific computer consultant. I look at my L554 classmates and find it very heartening that they want use their talent to benefit libraries. Fantastic!
I got an iPaq shortly after I started teaching at SLIS. The idea was to experiment with electronic books, etc. I sync'ed it daily with Outlook and all was well for a while. Then the seaons changed and Chicago and Indy were on different times. The iPaq would change meeting times that I had in my calendar as I moved from one time zone to another. It took me a couple of mixups to realize what was going on. I thought I was losing my mind - it was extremely upsetting. I ended up passing the iPaq on to Dr. Schilling and going back to a paper calendar, something I had not used in a few years. Oh, well, my life seems saner.
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