Does technology help us save time or waste time?

Save time

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by P.G. Day

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I am one of those who has to believe that technology saves time, but I've also seen how it can waste time, it all depends on what the circumstances are. I happen to carry a Blackberry, and I suffered a mini-stroke about 8 years ago that severely hampered my ability to remember things, and I use my Blackberry to the furthest extent of it's capabilities, daily. I kid around with my co-workers and colleagues that it's my electronic brain, and that may be so; that is as long as the brain is not damaged. Let me explain...

I start my day by checking to see what events are scheduled; work, doctor's appointments, etc., and I'm off to the races. All throughout the day, as I get a new phone number or e-mail address from a client or account rep, I put that in my Blackberry (Some have called it a Crackberry) and I trust that when I get home that night I will have that information on my hand-held device and that I will be able to store it on my laptop through Microsoft Outlook. I schedule three appointments for the next 10 days and put those events into my Blackberry again, trusting that when I need it there, I will have the place for the meeting and who the contact person is.

As I'm driving from one appointment to another throughout the day, I (of course) use my bluetooth headset while talking to one of my staff in the field. (Some states require headsets by law now). I also have an HTC Dash for my personal cell phone which I use exclusively when communicating with my brother in Seattle, and I discover that my father is gravely ill and I need to come and visit him, my brother e-mail's me a PDF document which the doctor gave him at his last visit. I am able to view the document and schedule a time to book a flight to Seattle within the next week.

Those are all very rosy scenarios which demonstrate the wonderful attributes of technology in our lives and how it benefits us. I have seen the opposite happen though. When technology is working FOR us it is beautiful, but when it fails it reminds us of how much time it is truly saving us. And the worst-case scenario for some is the dreaded "BOMB" on the computer screen. For you Mac users who have had their hard drive crash, you know the feeling: you have just lost all of your data on your computer, including all of your banking programs and you are going to have to start again from scratch. OUCH. Here is where the time wasted starts to add up. The good news is that in most cases, if you do your banking or pay your bills on-line, you haven't lost much since all of that data is stored on the bank or creditors website, but how do you know where to find that elusive login page again? The time involved in book-marking all of your favorite and important websites is overwhelming especially as our reliance on these types of technology increases.

The important thing to remember when dealing with new types of technology or anything where the time saved and the time that could be lost or wasted is represented by a huge chasm, is redundancy in backups. I alluded to it earlier; banking sites and your wireless company have already started the process for you, Verizon Wireless to name one. Ever lost phone numbers that were entered into your wireless phone only to be gone when the phone goes into the pool with you later that week at a friend's house? Verizon Wireless has built into their service a backup service that can SAVE you huge amounts of time and headaches, it's called Backup Assistant and it saves your address book on the VZW server every night without you even having to remember. This is just one example, but remember, redundancy is the key, multiple backups on different media. I have been in the recording business for the last 8 years and that is the rule of thumb for us. Triple and Quadruple redundant systems are the norm in this industry.

So you see that technology saves time, but you can also see how it can waste time, it all depends on what the circumstances are. nonetheless, it has become the industry we love to hate, but look where it has brought us.

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