It’s a challenging thing to think about. The way technology changes my life. To a large extend I only function through technology, even when just thinking of the table and chair I’m sitting at/on, in the cafe with its airconditioning/heating system and lovely easy listening jazz in the background.
More complex as a technology is my typewriter. What a difference compared to the first typewriter invented. Those machines were designed for one purpose only: typing letters on paper. My typewriter (sorry, it is not a friendly name for a Mac) is much more than that. I can read letters, watch movies, read the news on it and that is just from the perspective of consumption. On the production side, I can create movies, I can create news (by publishing articles on the Net) AND type letters.
I’ve written a few years back about the screen as teenagers umbilical cord. Looking at my own behaviour that is even more true now than it was back then (even though I’m not a teenager 
). I phone through skype, read my mail through gmail, follow friends on Jaiku/Twitter/Facebook, get inspired on Youtube and follow peoples holidays through Flickr.
I have the privilige to meet people from all over the world. I have the privilige to connect with them online, no matter where they are, no matter where I am.
What really changed for me in the past few years (has it only been 5 years since I started blogging?) is the type of people I’m able to connect with. More conversations on abstract and academic level. Meeting wonderful people at conferences and being able to connect with them afterwards, hence strengthening a bond that otherwise would not have come about. Even to the extend that those people are willing to let us stay at their place for a couple of weeks (and others staying at our place). I never found those connections at university.
Finishing my Master’s on the topic of blogging, trying to make a living of consulting the things I learned in the process (and not as succesfully as I perhaps hoped), moving from just blogging to tagging, wiki’s, social networking, presence streams and video sites. There is so muched new stuff I learned, just through experiencing and playing with it.
On the other hand, some things stayed the same. I still live in Enschede, together with Ton, I even went back to the fencing club I left behind when I went off to university.
It’s not just the communication tools that helped shape my life into what it is now. It is the power of the machine under my fingers. The combination of my MacbookPro and iMovie made me go back to editing movies, the thing I learned and loved to do at university. Feeling not completely alone while working from home, alone. Being able to ping Ton when I’m at home and he is halfway across the country, on his way to a client. Watching Dutch TV when I’m on holiday in Canada.
The combination of all the opportunities above shaped my routines, but at the same time they keep shifting. New tools are being developed all the time, some will stick with me longer than others. Some have more impact than others. Changes in infrastructure, such as moving from PC to laptop and the invention of RSS, are more dramatic than the change in software packages I use to benefit from those infrastructures.
To end my thinking here, I want to conclude with this: If I have to pinpoint just one thing that really changed the way I work, it has to be WiFi. That is the infrastructure that makes me move from one place to another, seemlessly tapping into my networks and work (but WiFi is useless without a laptop, so it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing ).
2 Comments
He Elmine,
I do this message in Dutch, I hope you do not mind (and the rest of the world).
Ik had even een tijdje je blogs niet gelezen, maar ik wil toch even een reactie geven op een aantal blogs tegelijk.
1. Allereerst nog gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag. 30 is een milestone, maar is meestal ook niet meer dan een cijfer.
2. Je blog van een aantal dagen geleden dat je niet zo lekker voelt. In deze blog geef je aan dat je niet tevreden bent professioneel. Volgens mij heb jij of Ton in het verleden wel eens geschreven over professional/prive balans dat dit verschuift door technology. Prive is werk en werk is prive.
Dit in ogenschouw nemend snap ik niet dat je professioneel niet tevreden bent. Ik volg je blogs nu al wat jaren en toch blijf je mij verassen op de manier zoals je gegroeid bent. Of dit nu professioneel is of prive, volgens mij moet je dat los zien.
Als ik naar mijzelf kijk ben ik blij dat ik jou in mijn RSS-feed heb staan, aangezien je toch een bepaalde kijk op de wereld hebt.
Ok, het betaald niets, maar het geeft je wel identiteit. Ik ben trots.
3. Dit brengt mij gelijk bij het laatste punt, deze blog. Je geeft aan dat technology changed your life. Ik denk dat dit gedeeltelijk waar is. Technology is een middel, maar de energie komt toch uit de mens. Ook ik heb al die mooie tools, maar toch schrijf ik niet zulke goede blogs….Think about that.
Gr,
Richard
Wauw, dank je Richard! Van dit soort complimenten krijg ik het helemaal warm
De workshop afgelopen vrijdag heeft me ook goed gedaan. Door me heel kwetsbaar op te stellen (zowel hier als tijdens de workshop) heb ik veel meer input gekregen dan ik had verwacht. Een blog over mijn nieuw verworven inzichten volgt nog.