Us and Technology

When you want to organize a party...

Put up a facebook invitation. I know it's not cool to invite someone to a wedding via facebook invitation, but it's good to be used as a tracker I think. Just so you dont miss anyone out. But a personal call I think is still necessary. Keep the brotherhood and sisterhood alive!

When you want to call someone..

It wasn't good enough to be able to just make a phone call, it had to be via a mobile phone, facebook, iphone, whatsapp. I remember I had to locate a relative about a death in the family, and because his phone was switched off while in the US, i had to facebook his SON. it took 1 week of calling, and finally 1 day via Facebook to locate him. When I initially started using ICQ, then MSN Messenger, I thought wow, the world is flat. Then we have Skype, gChat, etc, and now my office Communicator I can make calls and people can call me via the communicator without having a phone at all. But I dunno about you, but we're so accessible these days, that I secretly switch off everything at times. I dont switch on my fbchat....or my messenger anymore, and only gchat occasionally. the office communicator is enough to keep me busy and that's not something i can opt to switch off unfortunately!

When you want to have a face to face meeting...

It used to be when we had to set up a f2f meeting, brave the traffic jam and get to someone's office. I missed that really, despite the jam. Nothing like interpersonal touch. Now, we have to skype, video conferencing, livemeeting etc, and if all fails, just do a conference call? It's been years of working really in a virtual environment but I never got the itch off wondering how the other person in the other side of the world looks like. Hey this also reduce travel :( at work.

When you want to find a restaurant to eat...

We used to rely on word of mouth, calling someone "eh tell me how to get there". Now we have food blogs to do research, iPhone apps to read reviews...GPS to take us there. I was eating at a restaurant yesterday and Andrew was pissed off because of the portion served was really small, and it was highly recommended by food bloggers (WTF) , overrated, and we went to the one next door which was our favourite. Anyways, Andrew immediately commented via an app called Foursquare to review (i know, i should ban iphone-ing semasa makan soon). There's no chance to be shortchanged these days, but then you get dumbo, blogging-for-money idiots who has no whatsoever culinary sense. Hey someone should blog about these stupid food bloggers. I understand disclaimers that it's based on individual's taste, but cmon, Coffee Chemistry in Giza? Betty Midwest Kitchen in Aman Suria? gosh.

For travelling purpose...

I used to rely on wikipedia and Lonely Planet and all sorts of guide books for information. Nowadays, because we're so busy, all research done is really last minute, and only when I actually get on the plane that I have a blank mind to finally go with full force on a holiday. So, with technology actually, it has been so much more convenient to check for info, either via GPS, or via iPhone apps, or via internet cafes/kiosks that are everywhere in any country. No more heavy books!

And so, there are pros and cons. But embrace technology if it makes sense. But what makes sense is subjective to the individual. E.g. I dont sms or fb my mom. She smses me one liners at times. "come for dinner", and I'll call her back. My dad's a little bit more technology savvy so I read his blog and smses him. hehe. But we make it a point to see them FACE TO FACE every week. The presence is important. I dont like my coffee-of-the-day with imn and eva virtually :( because there's nothing like a live gossip! So same as work life balance, we need to have a life techno balance. It that makes sense at all. Haha.