Does Technology Make Us More Proficient?

Week Six Blog:  Does Today's Technology Make Us More Proficient

Wow!! The awesome world of Technology.  All I can say is…where would be without it?  Technology has proven to be a wonderful thing. If you can access it, and if you choose to learn to use it, I believe it can help make us more efficient.

With the evolution of today's technology all of our data, can be kept in sync with little to no effort. I can remember a long time ago, the idea of being able to carry around all your information in your pocket was something that was only hoped for in the future. The Internet was just coming into common usage, and most people carried around organizers and address books. Today, most of these things have been replaced by devices that can function anywhere any time like: the smartphones, smart watches, iPads and more. There have been ideas after ideas after ideas and attempts to make things better within technology, but ultimately just steps along the iconic way. These new ideas often came with a huge learning curve and price tag to match. But the notion of synchronization is something that most people take for granted nowadays, but it is definitely powerful, and is still evolving every day.

It is so amazing to see how far we have come since, back in the day, when I can remember carry around an address book and a note pad or sticky pads.  Any sense of organization and task management was completely manual. I would sit down and manually write all of my appointments, whether they for class, personal use or business related.  At the end of every day, the same thing would have to be done for the next day.

The corporate world wasn’t exactly that much better as I can remember. I know my parents were huge fans of the traditional diary and organizer. Every day, they transfer their tasks, their contacts and schedules from one day to the next. Today most people have learned to use the address books on their Blackberries or the contacts function on their computer. Back then, I think a few people had little pocket-sized books with their contacts in them. Some people had a shortlist of important contacts at the front of their organizers. I remember having my important numbers written in the front of my organizer.

And what if you need to jot down any notes, ideas, and information? I think that most people walked around thinking that they would remember it if it were important.  Sure, I had post-it notes of all shapes, colors and sizes everywhere too but no one central place to store everything.

Today, all of the way we used to take notes and keep up with things have been replaced with a couple of devices: the smartphones like the IPhone, Android, Windows, and Blackberry, the personal computer and a little cable that links them together. Every smartphone deals with all your personal information management basics – contacts, calendar and notes. Some also handle task management, with varying degrees of success. I remember when I got my first iPhone contacts, calendar, email, and notes all in sync, it was effortlessly.

And, when the idea of apps came about what an awesome experience. Not only could I take my basic personal information on-the-go with me, I could actually take other information relevant to my life on-the-go with me too like my music collection, my task list and my fitness information.  If you really stop and think about it, this is revolutionary. At your fingertips, you have a device that connects you with your finances, your workout routine, the latest news from around the world, the latest shopping catalogues and information, and every social network you can imagine. When I sat down and thought about it, it was mind-blowing. Having access to all this data and information instantly was incredible. It meant that I could operate just as productively from home, from the office or from the airport.  All on-the-go!

All this technology is so important from word processing to spreadsheets to the cornerstones of modern business.  Paypal can be used to send money to anyone with an email address anywhere in the world, the use of USB thumb drives can take whatever files and programs you want with you anywhere, Skype you can make cheap international phone calls from anywhere with an Internet connection, Facebook you can keep in touch with old friends and make new acquaintances, as well as build business relationships.  As with most things though, the choke point is usually the human factor. The biggest inhibitor in allowing technology to help us with our productivity is ourselves. More specifically, the lack of adoption and resistance to learning.

Technology has changed the way we learn and think too. The Internet alone has revolutionized our ability to access information. At a deeper level, it has also changed how we store and access information in our own minds. And how we combine information into new ideas and thoughts. The implications for the rest of us are straightforward: leverage technology to make our life more productive and easier, and get more done in shorter spans of time.

Technology extends this number. It lets us remember more people because we have a place outside our mind to hold information about them. It also takes care of certain things so that we don’t have to like remembering birthdays or crucial business appointments.  Love it or hate it, the technology to make our lives more efficient is out there. The information that we once thought restricted to our personal computers at home or work really is available to us anywhere and anytime, if we choose to use it.