I’ve always been one of the last people to adopt the latest technology and social media fads, and yet somehow I’ve landed myself a career in PR and not just any type of PR, but tech PR!
My tempestuous relationship with technology started year ago. I guess it all started when I got my first phone – which I have to say was not purchased legitimately. I’m now going to disclose something which I’ve never quite forgiven myself for. I’m feeling acute pangs of guilt writing this.
One Saturday, I think I was 13, I went shopping for the day in Dublin with a friend. My sister – who is younger than me – had taken out some of her hard earned savings so that I could buy her a phone while in Dublin. So off I went to the big smoke. While there I wandered as nonchalantly as a 13 year old can into a Vodafone shop – to whom I’ve remained a loyal customer. Anyway, to cut my story short, as this is very uncomfortable for me, I used my sister’s money to buy myself a phone. There, I’ve said it, it’s out, I’m a horrible person. Sonya I’m so very sorry. I’ve been assured by her that I made up amply for this by being excessively nice to her for a very long time afterwords, but still …
My Nokia 3210 was a reliable phone that served me well over the years. I racked up quite an impressive timing for Snake during the phone’s lifetime. And I recently found out that Snake still lives on in the form of an iPhone app.
Anyway, I’m diverting from my original point of my somewhat sporadic affinity with technology’s latest developments. From my phone I slowly moved to a laptop, I joined Bebo – that’s a name I haven’t heard in years – and gradually far behind the masses I moved into the 21st century, joining Facebook, upgrading to a Smartphone – which I cannot imagine managing without now – and finally a very reluctantly move to Twitter.
However, there is one area that I am still largely sceptical about and that’s eReaders. I take the tube to work every day where not only are there numerous adverts for Kindle’s and Kobo’s, but the number of people with eReader’s is staggering.
Every now and again I decide that based on my vast appetite for and colossal intake of books, a Kindle would be a good investment. But then I think of all the real books I could buy for that money and then I imagine how wrong it would be to sit in bed reading my book from a screen, and sense prevails.
Alison Flood at The Guardian recently wrote an interesting article about the acclaimed and bestselling author, Jonathan Franzen’s somewhat acute dislike for the fast paced technological advancements in the literary world. He concedes that in 50 year time or so there won’t be many printed books around, but he also warns that ebooks are corroding our values.
Now my views are not as stringent as his, however, what with Apple’s iBooks Author, ebooks and eReaders taking over we shall see how long I hold out and maintain my old fashioned view fors!
Brave It All 