Making technology work for you

I ran across TIBCO’s blog post last month and the post was basically advertising its Application Integration Platform for companies.  I was more interested in the story of Marc’s “perfect” morning.

We constantly interact with technology throughout our day, so why not make the technology work for us? It is hard to believe anyone has a “perfect” morning. For me, perfect would mean stress-free and everything goes as you planned. Sometimes I am able to live this ideal morning but not as often as I would like, due to the high unpredictability of my toddler’s behavior. The more responsibilities we take on, the more we have to organize, reorganize, and prepare for the unexpected.

New digital technologies surely have benefitted my typical morning to help make it the ideal one. But having the technology in your hands does not mean it will magically transform to make your life into the way you want it to be. It rests on how you choose to use the technology.

Although the author of the blog post considered Marc to be the “typical citizen and consumer,” we all know this could not be further from the truth (see the criticizing and negative comments at the bottom of that blog post). But the point here is that Marc uses digital technology to make it easier to reach his goals, organize his day, efficiently use his time, and make technology work by setting and planning according to his preferences.

“Marc’s mornings are the cumulative effect of his investments in seeking out solutions and improving his life through thoughtfulness and feedback” (Lau, 2013). As new media and digital technologies emerge (and if we have the opportunity to use it), we should use it wisely. Hopefully we do not just use it to program our selfish preferences, but use it to effectively communicate with the world around us.

Lau, L. (2013, March 14). How to have a perfect morning, every morning. Retrieved from    http://www.thetibcoblog.com/2013/03/14/how-to-have-a-perfect-morning-every-morning/