We like to think of ourselves as technology-literate. That isn’t all that true. We know that technology has changed everything and that technology is a very important part of our lives. We are always on the phone and we are always connected. We are constantly on a computer and we’re always connected to the internet. Technology has also made our homes a lot more technologically connected as well.
What happens when you suddenly have to take a break from tech-related activity? You are likely to find yourself going online, looking up information, sending and receiving chat, sending video chatting, sending instant messaging, and even doing some work on your phone. In other words, your typical tech-smart person uses the internet, but not necessarily in the most productive way.
If you are a tech-smart person, you probably spend a good portion of your day using the internet. You probably find yourself reading and surfing the web, sending and receiving chat messages, going online to use Facebook, reading blogs, and sending and receiving instant messages. If you’re like most people though, you’re likely to do all of this work in your spare time, without much thought to what you’re doing.
Technology is a double-edged sword because if you spend any time at all online, your productivity can suffer. You can get so bogged down in constant on-line activity that you may not be able to take advantage of your time. If you spend a lot of time working on a computer, you could end up spending more time watching TV than you do working.
This is why we’re constantly seeing examples of people who spend a lot of time on their computers, but never actually go back to work. There are a lot of people on the internet who are just not productive, are constantly distracted, or are just generally not interested in anything but their computer. They do this for a variety of reasons, some of which are related to a lack of self-awareness, and some of which are related to what you do with your life.
At the end of the day, it’s often about what you do with your life. People that are constantly distracted rarely work. People that are constantly distracted rarely get distracted. People that are constantly distracted rarely do anything. People that are constantly distracted rarely have anything to do with anything. And so on.
You can’t just give your computer a new battery and forget about it, because the machine will still be alive. If you’re like most of us, you have to make sure that your computer is really, really alive when you’re using it. Otherwise, if you take it to a friend’s house, he’ll say, “I’m not going to watch you on my computer!” because he’ll think that he’s just wasting his time.
This is so true. I mean, I have a friend that we talked about this in the past and he was like “man, if I was in charge of computers, I would just give you a new battery and forget about it”. And I was like “well that’s just the way I am.
We are talking about a real problem here. A lot of computer users are using computers for the wrong purpose. They keep them alive and then they forget about them. This is especially true with mobile phones. So much so that we have a website called DontMentionYourPhone.com that is dedicated to preventing people from using their phones for more than a few seconds.
Yes, I know everyone seems to be in a hurry to put a new iPhone on their list of must-haves. But I find it interesting that we are now talking about the very thing that so many of us have been avoiding, but are now being forced to pay for. It’s not just that we’re giving away a new phone, its that we are giving away something that actually matters. We are giving away something that most of us never use.
