An anniversary

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of me joining Twitter.

How do I know? Not because I've looked up the tweets in question, or that the info is stored in my smartphone (I don't think it's so smart, it's never made me a cup of tea or won an argument with me etc, but that's an early aside.)  I know because I've written the snippet in my diary.

Which, in itself, probably tells you much about where this particular musing is going. I don't keep my life on a computer, as do many these days, but still in that spectacularly old fashioned manner of a diary.

I suppose it's partly the same reason I haven't got an ebook reader.  I just like the physical contact of the thing.  It's a kind of comfort.  Plus, my diary has never crashed on me and erased everything I've written in an electronic brainstorm.  A small, but important issue.

Anyway, back to the point of this, which was a few thoughts about technology.  From a wary beginning, I've come to enjoy tweeting.  It strikes me as an obvious thing to do for those talkative types - like writers - who think they have something to say and that the world (lucky place that it is) should hear it.

I've set a few rules, like don't get into the mundane (I'm having a coffee... I'm cleaning my teeth...) and don't overdo it.  Instead just try to keep it either insightful, whismical, thoughtful, or just plain daft.

(The latter is my specialist subject.)

But the final rule is, for me, the most important, and it applies to all technology.  Don't let the tweeting (or texting, or any mobile communications stuff) become a substitute, or even distraction, from life. 

I continue to be irked with/disappointed by those folk who are walking along the river here in beautiful Exeter, past the fantastic scenery, the wildllife, and still have face firmly buried in phone. You're missing the world...

I think part of the reason for all this is just me, that I'm old fashioned enough to like talking to people, face to face, rather than emailing or texting them.  But there's also the fact that - as with Dan in the tvdetective books - the day job of hackery can mean relentless phone calls, emails etc.  So when the time comes to escape from them, I like to take it.

Right, two more bits to mention in this blog. First, I've been getting a fair few questions about how the play is going.  I will update you on that in the next couple of weeks, but I've been trying to give it a rest for a while so as not to bore you.  Fear not, it's all going well and I'm still as excited as ever.

And finally, a tune for today.  As this is a techno type blog, how about a related song? (See how much thought goes into these things!) 

So I've chosen Living by Numbers by New Musik.  Because it's another from my youth, but also a fine bit of thinking about the dangers of where technology can take us...