Keeping Up

Is it possible to keep up with technology?

Unless it's your full time job, that is.  If you even have a full time job anymore, in this ever-growing freelance kind of world, where the only people who get any help seem to be the billionaires and the giant corporations who appear to be destroying the world with their greed.

Check your email, check Facebook, post on Facebook, check Twitter, post on Instagram, on Snapchat, show everyone what you had for lunch, and oh yes, did you start a blog intending to write on it every day? Every week? Every month?

Tapping on your phone while you're walking down the street. Avoiding personal interaction? Avoiding having a face to face conversation with a person? Or it's just easier.  But is it?

Is it possible to keep up?

21st Century Overload.

So Much Time, So Little To Do

Wait... Strike that, reverse it.


This, I believe is a quote from Willy Wonka. It is how I feel about the world lately.  
Too much to do!  Computers were supposed to make our lives easier (weren't they?) but they  just give us more stuff to keep track of.  Access to more information, certainly, but how do we keep track of it all?

We can search the Web for answers to anything.  It is amazing, any question you can think of, someone else in the world has the answer, or has at least asked the same question.  The learning possibilities are endless.  It's exciting. And time-consuming. Especially when one page has an interesting link to another, and then to another, and then you see something else interesting, and that reminds you of another thing you want to look up and then... wait, what was I searching for?

Check emails, read, reply to some, save others till later, until the email box is overflowing, go back through the old ones, and try to remember, why was I saving this? Delete. Delete.  Check your Facebook page, update. Check Linked In, update.  And Twitter. And Pinterest. And all the others I don't use. Watch a video clip. Listen to some music.  Remember to write something on your blog, at least once in awhile.  Send out some pictures. Pay your bills. Check emails again. And Facebook. And Linked In.... it's truly neverending.

How do you keep up with it all?

Maybe it's just me. Some days it's hard to focus.  I have to work on that.  
But first, let me go read that thing I just found...

Would you rather type than talk?

While I appreciate the value of emails and texting in many situations, I'm curious how many people are typing, primarily to avoid talking to people.

Originally it seemed that texting was a way to use the phone when you shouldn't be on your phone at all ... in class or in a meeting. Then someone told me that they didn't actually want to talk to their friend and get into a long phone call, they just wanted to send a message to them. It's more of a one-way communication to me ... until your friend texts you back, I guess.

So, would you rather text a friend than actually speak to them? There are situations where typing is better than talking, but are those situations becoming more frequent for many people? Is there an age gap in how we think about texting? It seems that kids, teens and 20-somethings may spend more time texting than talking. But I start to wonder, are they still learning how to have conversations or are they avoiding that by texting?

Is there any danger that people will lose their verbal skills? It is still important to develop the ability to quickly verbalize your thoughts on the phone, or make eye contact in face-to-face conversation, isn't it? It's something that you can really only learn by doing. We've all been in awkward social situations... feeling shy, standing alone at a party or at a business function, trying to find a friendly person to talk to. By going through this, we begin to learn how to connect, verbally, face to face. Small talk may seem unimportant, but it can lead to great connections and conversations. It is different than typing into a computer or phone keypad.

Both written and verbal communication have value. I just hope we're not losing the ability for face-to-face verbal conversations.

With new technology, it takes awhile for us to figure out the best balance, the proper usage, and how it fits with other technology. In the New York Times article that got me thinking about this talk vs. text subject, the writer says it was the same when telephones first appeared. What was considered the proper usage for the telephone has changed quite a bit through the years.

The article, "Don't Call Me, I Won't Call You" is an interesting and amusing take on it. Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/fashion/20Cultural.html?ei=5087&en=c81b98c29f1a5ea0&ex=1316491200&pagewanted=all

What do you think? Do we still know how to converse with each other? Would you rather type than talk?

I'm An Infomaniac

Information. I like having access to lots of information. I like to know stuff. I keep reference books around, so I can always check facts and answer vital questions that come up... What's in a Mudslide again? When was that movie made, and who is that actor?

Of course, now that we have the internet, information is everywhere. With internet access, you can google anything, and learn lots of new stuff, from lots of different, worldwide sources. I love this and use it often.

But what about our time? Weren't computers supposed to make our lives easier? (or did I dream that?) In addition to googling anything we want to know, we have to keep up with our email (more new messages in the Inbox?), and our old-school mail, and our Facebook page, and I can't even think about Twitter, and now it appears I have gone and started a blog. Where are we supposed to find the time to maintain all of these new communication and information pipelines?

In some cases, we're now doing things for ourselves that, in olden days, companies used to do for us, like printing out our own airline tickets, and bills, and paycheck stubs. We now spend our own time, ink, and paper, printing for ourselves. Where are we finding the time to keep up with all these new duties? Our lives are already jam-packed.

I'm curious to see how we will face our time management challenges in the 21st Century. With all this access to all this computer-based information and communication, what will fall by the wayside, just because we no longer have the time?