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How did we cope before computers?
12 January 2011
By Elizabeth Dodson
In December, disaster struck, I switched my computer on only to be greeted with the blue screen of death. It made me realise how utterly reliant I am on my laptop and how much harder life is without the Internet.
This blog is just one example of how easy it is now to share information. Within minutes of having an idea I can publish it on the Internet for all to see and comment on. Granted this may not always be a good thing, but it is a luxury that I had come to take for granted. The Internet enables us to build communities and it is a strange experience to suddenly be isolated from that.
While on maternity leave, the Internet also provides the easiest way for me to stay in touch with colleagues and to keep in the general loop of activity so that my eventual return to work is not too much of a shock to the system. It has allowed me to continue to dip my toe into a little cooperative research activity and to continue to read journals without the need to drive to an academic library. I remember spending a large part of my degree pretty much living at the library - now I can read most of the journals I want online at the click of a button.
Whenever I have a question these days, Google is often my first port of call. Want to know more about some research reported on the news, someone's contact details, a missing instruction manual - Google will have the answer.
My laptop is where I keep my lists and my calendar - which are what keep me organised. It is also where I have all my passwords saved - making it not so easy to just pick up someone elses computer and use the Internet for the same activities. (Is it just me or is it virtually impossible to remember the number of passwords now required to get by on the Internet?)
Back in the 1940s, the president of IBM famously predicted, "A world market for maybe five computers". I'm no longer sure how I could do my job without one. Should this reliance worry me or is it just the way of the world?
Sandrine Berges13 January 2011 at 08:03 AM
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I know exactly what you mean. I managed to virus my laptop, my husband's and the children's a couple of months ago. We were lost. Of course we still had computers at work, one each, and I had email on tap with my phone and fairly reliable internet via my ipod touch. But it wasn't the same. It made me reflect, not for the time that I may actually be a tiny bit addicted to computers and the internet. I used to be a bookworm, but since getting my netbook, I tend to stream tv for relaxation rather than read. And if I want a book, I'll read it on my ipod. I'm amazed at how fast we became dependent on computers. Where wiii it go from here?
Sarah Davies13 January 2011 at 11:54 PM
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Reading your first paragraph sent shivers down my spine, Liz - like both yourself and Sandrine, I'd be utterly lost without my laptop. I actually wonder on a fairly regular basis how academia worked before computers were so unbiquitous - most of the tasks I do from day to day would take significantly longer if they weren't simply impossible. (Though perhaps I would focus on different things...research in different ways...and produce more sustained writing?) One of the things I enjoyed about reading AS Byatt's 'Possession' (book plugs aren't just for Christmas, folks) was the depiction of academics in the late 1980s: they write actual paper letters to each other, draft papers by hand, and circulate hard copies of pre-prints. It really seemed a different, much slower world - one that was in some ways attractive.
John Igoe17 January 2011 at 09:49 AM
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Great blog post Elizabeth.
I find it absolutely fascinating how technology has revolutionalized the way we are able to connect with people. I has truly altered our perception of both time and space.
Whilst the technology is incredible (recognition where it is due) and provides a gateway to potentially 1000s of new resources and content, ways of working etc, its success (take up) has been predominantly down to the opportunities to communicate freely with people. Social networking - be it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, is all about the people (not the technology).
There was a great series from the BBC recently all about this. It is well worth checking out. Hope you find this interesting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/
Blanka Sengerová19 January 2011 at 03:41 PM
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Very insightful comment, Liz, and something that we probably all agree with. After two months of my PhD, my trusty laptop died and I had to wait a few weeks before the new computer arrived, realising that using communal computers at work wasn't quite the thing.
Having said that, soon after I started my postdoc my own personal laptop died and the Dell we ordered through work took, for some reason, about 1 month to arrive. It did mean that I managed to do quite a bit of reading of printed out papers but did feel at a bit of a loss and had to find other computers in the department where to check email.
This week and next, I have been doing some work in a lab in a different department of the University so obviously haven't got my own computer there (my work compyter is a desktop and so is my one at home) and have been finding it a bit strange not to be just checking in on email very briefly every time I pop to my desk. On the plus side, yesterday I managed to get through several hard-going papers (reading) which I probably would have filed and not got round to reading otherwise so there is something to be said for switching off the computer occasionally!
Nathan Ryder10 March 2011 at 10:18 AM
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I don't know what I would do now without a computer: and not just a computer, but my smart(ish)phone (alas, not an iPhone or a Blackberry) that lets me check my emails and the internet - having so much information at my fingertips - and as you said Elizabeth, being able to share ideas - is amazing.
And this post has been a good reminder to me to back all of my work up to a memory stick!
@John: Exactly, technology is all about the people and the uses that they find for that technology, it's never just about "the specs".