I am Always Late

For the last two-three decades, the changes in our life resulted from technological development were more than miraculous. Internet, computers, notebooks, e-mails, smartphones, Wi-Fi and bluetooth technology, flash cards: is it possible to imagine our life without them? That is why we all love technology. However, specialists do not stop warning us that we rely on the latest technological achievements and innovations too much. The truth is: all those devices and inventions were made to help us to save our time. But very often they play a role of very powerful time killers and cause a lot of unwanted stresses. Let’s take a closer look at this problem.

For some years, my friend Carla worked as a secretary in Precision Intermedia, a huge marketing agency. Every time when I used to meet her she was complaining about one of senior managers in her company. He was always extremely busy and unreachable, but when she used to tell him that she could not contact him on time, he never accepted that as an apology. “Look, you have 5 ways to reach me at any time. I have my mobile phone, which is never off. I have my personal assistant who is always next to me. I have a phone on my office-table which also works fine. Finally, I have 2 business e-mail addresses and I check them out every hour from my PPC. I will never believe that all these communication channels failed at the same time.” What to say?

Undoubtedly, every technology and every innovation has positive and negative sides. For example, using e-mails substantially facilitates and fastens communication, as well as lowers its costs. However, numerous viruses and spam messages we receive through e-mail damage our computers and affect our productivity. Mobile connection allowed people to stay in touch with each other regardless of the distance and other circumstances. At the same time, using mobile phones has negative effects on our health and also affects our productivity. The same can be said about using Internet or PPC. It is obvious that we must keep using technological developments under control, and here are some recommendations for those who want to be less dependent on technological failures:

1. Be sure that you use full capacity and all functions of your devices or technologies. Do not keep any device or technological tool only because it is a brand new and fashionable one, but can not satisfy all your professional or personal needs. Avoid using the technologies which can not bring the expected utility, otherwise you will lose more than win.

2. Always look for more information about your new device or technology. My dad had to spend 4 hours to learn using his mp3-player because he was feeling shy to bother other people and asking for directions. Spare your time and ask your friends, relatives, shop assistants, distributors about new functions and new opportunities that can be opened to you by using your new device or technology.

3. Update your technology. Just a decade ago our mobile phones were quite simple and could offer us hardly something more than just mobile connection. Now, we can use these devices as a photo camera, internet service provider, file storage and God knows what else. If you have the latest model of Samsung or Nokia mobile phone with a powerful high zoom camera, give up using your old digital camera: at least you will save your money and time for battery replacement.

I hope that this article did not make you think that I am an opponent of technology. Technological innovations and inventions are doing a great job for the humanity, and technology is extremely useful until it does not stop helping people to progress and advance. So, technology itself can not be blamed, the problem is us. In our epoch of multiplicable gigabytes, increasing number of web-sites and space ships, a great deal of people use too many various devices and technologies in their daily life. As a result, we frequently spend our time on less important things and sometimes even waste those precious minutes and hours of our life for solving various avoidable technical problems.