Round about this time last week, I was in a panic because my laptop had a virus. It was a disastrous start to my second week of blogging and no amount of aromatherapy lotions, potions and candles could calm my stress and irritation. Having attended The Only Way is Blogging (TOWIB1) the day before (post to follow) I was all fired up to write loads of posts and generally get my social media groove on. Best laid plans and all that… I ended up heading to Ilford (quite a trek from saaaarf London) to take my machine to the best computer man inside the M25. I then spent the rest of the week looking for my MS Office CD… which I had put in a very safe place. So safe that I could not find it! Typical!
Anyway, this whole palaver got me thinking about how my relationship with technology has changed in a very short period of time. Only last year, I had a Nokia phone that was not particularly smart. The most important thing for was that the phone could be used for calls and texting and had a radio on it. That was it. I was not what you would call an early adopter.
Is that because…
- I was born in the seventies, or
- I choose heels over flats, or
- It was not available in purple
Of course not… although a patent finish purple tablet would great…. I think it is because I didn’t fully appreciate what it could do for me or how quickly. It is not an overstatement to say that technology has changed my life.
My favourite bits of kit
Between my phone, laptop and latterly my tablet, I am able to connect with people across the globe, shop for almost anything, wherever I am, regardless of the time of day, navigate my way through the UK’s road network (that Android Sat Nav is soo good), find new music, enjoy my existing music, buy tickets to concerts, buy holidays and flights, find information on a vast array of different topics within an instant and monitor my menstrual cycle and my dietary intake, listen to the radio, find out what cleaning balm to use (blog to follow) write and type notes, take and edit pictures, and a long long LONG list of other things… as Tommy Cooper would say… juss-like-at. Amazing. Seriously. Take a second to think about how differently you do things now, from how you did them 5 years ago… or in my case eighteen months ago. And if you start to consider the global impact…it’s really mindblowing.
Now I understand how people become addicted to Twitter – in less then three weeks I have sent over 60 tweets and more then 15 people are following me. Me!?!?! Now I understand how people end up with a brand addiction. Apple heads, you know who you are! I understand now… because…by some strange coincidence, my phone tablet and laptop are all Samsung. How did that happen? Technology happened. I can’t be the only one? Tell me I’m not!
How long have you been managing your blog/twitter/pinterest/tumblr/instagram/foursquare/technology/addiction?