How often do you step back and remember what it was like before all this?
I do it all the time. It truly is amazing all the technology we have today to help us do our jobs. Take my job for example.
I still don’t know how I wrote and rewrote articles on a typewriter as compared to my computer where I can easily make changes, move paragraphs around, and assemble it all like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into a finished article. I must have wasted a lot of paper before all this.
Before all this I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to public relations people about their clients and about each other. I developed a lot of friendships as the result of those phone calls. That personal interaction has largely been supplanted by e-mail. Even though it is more immediate, e-mail is less personal. But that’s the way it is and some days my phone doesn’t ring at all. But my e-mail inbox, well that’s another story. I miss the way it was before all this just a little bit, but appreciate this way because as big a waste of time as e-mail can be, it’s a huge time saver too.
Before all this I used to take notes by hand when conducting interviews and then try to decipher my handwriting afterwards. Now I use a digital recorder and an app called AudioNote on my iPad. I use the latter at dealer meetings and conferences. It’s a recording app that records and time stamps what’s being recorded (you have to input that information) so you don’t have to go back and listen to the entire recording to find what you’re looking for. I haven’t used pen or paper to take notes at a dealer meeting or in a telephone interview for nearly three years now.
What’s his title again? Before all this I’d have to send an e-mail to confirm the exact title of someone I interviewed or someone I’m writing about. Now all I have to do is look that person up on Linkedin.
Before all this research could be time consuming, requiring multiple phone calls or waiting to be mailed or faxed information. Now access to information is immediate and accessible from anywhere thanks to the Internet, computers, smartphones, and tablets. It’s not like I’m telling you anything you don’t know.
I have plenty of other examples of what things were like before all this. Remember making airline and hotel reservations over the phone or registering for conferences and other events by filling out a hard copy application form? And I’m still just scratching the surface of before all this.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, how can you not marvel at the technology available to us today, especially when you think about how life and work was before all this.
In another five or ten years we’ll probably be looking back and reminiscing fondly or not about what it was like before all this today.
Thanks for reading.
