Hope that you have all had a great
Christmas and New Year. It’s so
refreshing to take a break from work, technology and screens to see friends and
family. Technology seems to have
encroached a lot in my life, and I have begun wondering if it’s always a good
thing.
Our family are great fans of board games
and jigsaw puzzles. It is a relaxing way
to spend time together. There is also
nothing better than a winter walk, all wrapped up against the cold. I have always preferred to read a book rather
than watch TV. My best memories don’t
involve a screen or computer. It’s not
to say that I don’t enjoy my job! The
best bit about what I do is meeting and helping people. Face to face interaction is so important in
our lives.
In a world where everyone seems busier, and
people multitask all the time for example texting while walking; I wonder if
it’s good for you to be so glued to a screen, whatever size it is. When I see couples having dinner in a
restaurant and both of them are engaged with their mobile phones, and scarcely
talking, or people almost being run over because they are so unaware of their
surroundings. It makes me think about
technology and it’s impact on our lives.
Perhaps it is not always a good thing.
A few times recently I have left my phone
at home, albeit accidentally, when going out.
I didn’t miss having it, and there was nothing momentous that needed my
attention when I returned. I felt that I
could focus more on the moment without a phone to distract me.
If you were looking for a new Year’s
resolution, and hadn’t thought about what you could do differently this year,
you could try having time away from a screen.
Leave your phone behind at times, or turn it to silent. Maybe even turn off the Wi-Fi at home for a
period of time or have a day off technology every week. It’s worth a thought.
Another good resolution would be to do some
housekeeping on your devices. It is a
really common problem to run out of storage on phone, tablet and computer
because they contain too much stuff. It
is pretty boring, but you can clean them up by deleting anything you don’t
need. We take so many photos on our
phones, and they take up a lot of space, so that would be the first thing I
would suggest that you attend to. Make
sure that they are backed up, wherever you keep your photos, but don’t keep so
many on your phone. Move them to a cloud
based storage area, onto a computer or external drive. You can also clean up any apps that you
aren’t using.
Deleting old emails is another way of
clearing space on your devices. On
laptops you can also clear out any documents you no longer need, delete your downloads,
remove any programmes you aren’t using and empty your bin.
Many of my clients are stressed out by
their technology because they don’t feel in control of it. I hope that I can make a difference by
demystifying what they see, explaining it, so that they can relax and feel more
confident with what they are doing.
There are many shortcuts that can be put in place to make the experience
less troublesome. Passwords cause more
problems than anything else. My last
suggestion for a new year’s resolution is to ensure that all passwords are
written down in a safe place. The most
important ones are the password to unlock your device, the one for your email,
and if you are an Apple user, your Apple ID.
Wishing you all a happy new year and stress
free computing.
