What Technology (Should) Do For Us
I love apps. I love testing out new social networks. Keeping up with the newest ways people consume and share information is an exhaustive hobby but a fun one - a hobby I feel blessed to get paid to keep up in a way. Technology should be making our lives simpler - not harder. That said, I feel like it does the opposite for us. I'm the guiltiest party in that group. We started Facebook or Twitter or (insert social network here) to keep up with friends easily. I downloaded Flipboard and Feedly to view news content in one easy place. I have to-do apps, calendars and reminders to keep my deliverables in check.
But I have several to-do apps. Three different calendar apps because as I would test one out, another would resurface. I feel the need to check several different apps for different pieces of news, update many different social networks and post my runs to three different workout trackers.
We have so many apps, so many connections and so much news that it's burdensome to keep up with. A rising trend is taking a vacation from technology. Sad right?
What Technology Should Do
We shouldn't let it control us, we should control it. Having a reminder app on your phone, a calendar app or a tool like Pocket or Evernote is designed to save you time. In addition to that, it should free up brain space. Because we don't have to use up mental energy to remember this note or remember the 50 tasks on our list line-by-line, in theory it should free up our brains for more creative thinking.
Advancements in tech should give us the wonderful opportunity to spend more time thinking about solving the next big client problem or inventing the next thing we all need. Technology should be a support system for us. We should delegate to it - not the other way around.
In a world full of doing, time spent actually thinking has been swept under the rug. We can use the same technology that has cranked more hours of activity out of us and use it to provide for more time doing meaningful (not busy) work.
How does tech fit into your day-to-day? What could you live without?