Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Don't You Just Love Technology?

I can remember my grandmother telling me when she was in her late 80's that she didn't want to learn how to use a computer, that she had seen and learned to use enough new things in her lifetime and didn't need to add computer skills to that long list. I can see her point, but I'm not there yet. I believe technology is a wonderful thing. I think it's amazing that we can talk to people all over the world and learn new things, look up information or spread a message, all with the help of the Internet.

There's so much going on and so many websites to choose from, it's hard to know where to go. I signed up for Twitter a few months ago and hadn't been back since, until today (thanks, Kyle, for linking to my blog post!). I like the idea but at the same time, I'm not sure what I would post on my updates and I don't know who would care that I've finished eating breakfast or I'm home from work or the cat threw up on the rug again.

I'm on Facebook, which I enjoy a lot, because it's a great way to keep in touch with friends and share photos and see what people are doing.

I don't have an iPhone, but I do have an iPod Touch, which is fabulous. I have hundreds of songs loaded onto it and all the accompanying album art, which is a treat all of it's own. And I have a cell phone, which is a few years old now but I don't use it very much. Nor do I text very often because I only have a numeric pad and it's just too slow to hit all those buttons to type out a message. It's going to be against the law as of October to use your phone in the car unless you have handsfree technology so I'll need to get a new phone and when I do, I might check out something with a Qwerty keyboard.

While we're on the subject, don't you just love the word "qwerty"?? Now that's clever. Whomever realized that the six letters in the top row of your keyboard spells that funky word deserves some serious kudos for that one.

I must say, I felt very behind in the technology arena this past weekend. I was the only one at the workshop without their own digital SLR camera and I also didn't have a laptop to download my photos onto for immediate viewing. People very kindly shared their toys with me, but I'm feeling the urge to do a little shopping this week all the same. So far, I've been able to resist that urge (my new budget is only 2 weeks old, after all!) but I can't say how long I'll be able to hold out.

Here's a picture of Kyle Cassidy from this past weekend, posting a new tweet on Twitter using his iPhone. Did I mention that I first heard about Kyle by reading the blog of my lovely and talented friend, Kate McKinnon, who often mentions what Kyle himself is blogging about or when he has a particularly cool photo posted (they are all cool, but some are more awesome than others). In fact, Kate is also responsible for this blog - I enjoyed reading hers so much, I decided to try it myself. Thanks, Kate!!

Yes, technology is a wonderful thing. I agree it sometimes keeps us from talking to each other face to face in real time but it also has its advantages and I intend to keep making use of all of them as long as my aging brain can handle it!