T & A ... Technology and Autobiography

Number One: Describe an important moment in your life that influenced your relationship with technology.

I’m going to come right out and say it. Deep breath ... I’m a Mac snob. There. Now it’s out there in the open. I am a fool for Apple computers and all things Macintosh. I can’t help myself and never have been able to. They’re too pretty, too lovely to look upon, too clever for me to ever be content with a basic beige (or perhaps black if we’re feeling out-of-the-box) computer. It all started with the first iMacs: never in a million years could I resist a computer bathed in such fruity hues; the things practically emitted tantalizing aromas of tangerines, grapes, limes, even strawberries! And the little whirring noises they made! And just how gosh-darn cute they were! I finally saved up enough cash to purchase a second-hand blueberry model and for years, I loved that thing to pieces. Sadly, the passage of time was not as good to my computer as I was to it and now my adorably obsolete blueberry contraption sadly sits in storage. An iBook took its place and with it the entire gamut of Mac-aphernalia. The following years only made me snobbier with my obsession, aghast that Apple would even think of producing iPods that were (shudder!) PC-compatible! However, I’ve come to acknowledge my own status on the bandwagon. Without that first look at a little purple machine, I’d never have come this close to actually caring about, let alone frittering away oodles of money for, a computer. Just like Eve, I was hooked at first bite and I just can’t stop adoring my little Mac machines.

Number Two: Tell a story about how you learned a new communication technology.

I’ve never really been too good with cell phones. Don’t get me wrong, I love having one and couldn’t live without it. It’s just that I don’t really want my cell phone to do anything but be a phone. Pictures, email – aren’t those all things a camera can do? Or a computer? When I moved to Sweden for a year, all this changed. Upon arriving in Sweden I purchased the cheapest phone I could find and boy, was I wrong. Swedes are borderline obsessive-compulsive about their phones. Every third commercial is mobil(cellphone)-related: new rings, new covers, new pictures, new anything. In pubs, mobiles are whipped out in order to one-up the competition for a pretty girl’s attention. All this can be confusing to an outsider, as Swedes never actually use their phones for calling purposes. It’s all about the SMS (Short Message System), or as we say stateside, texting. For reasons I doubt I’ll ever know, it’s ridiculously cheaper to send a text message than to call a person from a phone, so an entire culture devoted to communicating via SMS has developed in Sweden. Now back at home, I reckon I have the fastest texting fingers this side of the Mississippi. I’m addicted. So if I don’t call you, it doesn’t mean I don’t care. It’s just that I’m waiting for everyone else to catch up and stop calling: it’s all about the texting, baby.


Number Three: Describe a situation (story) that illustrates some concern you have about the use of communication technologies in your profession.

Currently, I work in a pretty normal office; nothing too out of the ordinary. It’s not Intel, nor am I stuck with just pen and paper with a dusty typewriter in the corner. Everyone in the office uses a messenger service in order to “communicate better” with one another. However, this usually leads to lots of cross-cubicle-trash-talking and dissections of the most frivolous websites at the current moment, not to mention constant updates of the most tongue-in-cheek blogs around. It seems that though the instant-messaging can help in a snap some times, why not just get up and talk to a person? After all, they are a mere three feet away. If you’re feeling exceptionally lazy you could just shout right over, yet socially, it seems we don’t feel as comfortable articulating aloud the things we type. It doesn’t worry me that the internet is the culprit breaking down productivity at all time highs; productivity is always falling apart by some outside force or another. It’s just that instant-messaging seems to be breaking down some formalities previously enjoyed in earlier times.



Number Four: Describe an experience that made you want to learn a new communication technology.

I’ve never been one of those have-to-have-it-right-now technology people (besides staying up on the latest Mac gadgetry as of late). As a child, my brothers destroyed any and all fun I ever had with Nintendo by completely obliterating me in any game, especially Super MarioKart (it’s not my fault that I always chose to be Princess; who knew she was the slowest?). I really can’t pinpoint any particular time that lit a spark in me with respect to any communication technology.