Context
I have an iGoogle page. Mainly I use it as a quick link to this blog and for sharing a calendar with my husband. I also have links to some other websites with hard-to-remember addresses that I use regularly and a couple of RSS feeds. There are a lot of other things I could add to the page, but in the three years I've had it I've made very few changes.
Commentary
As mentioned previously, I am not a quick adopter of technological innovation. In fact, if I'm completely honest with myself I have to say I'm not a person who changes easily, period.
I'm not change-averse; I'm change-cautious. Or maybe change-skeptical. Change-intentional? I like to have a good reason to change, OK? And just, "it's new!" doesn't qualify as a good reason in my book. So looking over my iGoogle page caused me to wonder, "Do I need to add anything new here?" And the answer was no, I didn't feel like it lacked for anything important. Which got me to thinking about what does cause me to change. What is a good enough reason? The answer that immediately popped into my head was: "Other people."
I was flabbergasted. If you asked anyone who knew me to make a list of my personality traits, "people-pleaser" wouldn't make the top 200. And since "argumentative," "stubborn," and um, "forthright" would probably be in the top ten, I have a certain amount of sympathy for anyone who tries to make me to change something.
Nonetheless, other people are usually involved when I decide to change something. The scenario usually goes like this: I see someone in need. In examining the situation, I see a change that I could make that would likely improve matters. The change gets made.
For example, the reason I share a calendar with my husband on iGoogle is because I used to hand him a paper calendar every month and that became really difficult for him to keep track of. Plus my schedule is often kind of up in the air, so I had to hand him frequent updates and even though his schedule is usually fairly regular, I had a hard time remembering it, and blah! It all just became much easier with a shared web solution.
Realistically, of course, I'm often solving my own problems at the same time, but I find it harder to see my problems. Forest for the trees, I suppose. Paradoxically, I seem to need to see another person's problem with my own eyes in order to respond, rather than just believing them when they tell me about it. So I guess it's a good thing to keep my eyes open.
What did you see today?
1 comment:
I'm not one to readily make technological innovations or changes myself either. However, in my case, it is because I am techno-intimidated and perhaps unimaginative about the possibilities of technology. I had no desire to own an ipod but when one came into my possession through no intention or design of my own I quickly became quite fond of it. And when I got an upgrade, under similar circumstances I was similarly happy with it. I have no desire to have a blackberry or iphone and the idea of getting a new cell phone is horrifying only because I figured out how to input phone numbers into my current phone and the idea of doing it over again is somewhat horrifying. Time and again my husband (who is a tech person though techno obsessed) has dragged me reluctantly and sometimes kicking and screaming into new areas of technology (most recently google apps) and I've found that after my initial fear and resistance that it has made life easier. Is the world divided into people who are drawn to technology and the latest toys and gadgets and those who are instinctively averse or afraid of them?
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