I've always had a love-hate relationship with technology. When I'm introduced to something new, I love learning about it. But soon I witness the losses...mostly the loss of quality contact time with people and nature. I think it's important to identify the personal and professional uses of these technologies, because the boundaries are easily blurred. Our students carry laptops, ipods and cell phones as everyday hardware. I know the aim of some of the "things" is to reach patrons where they're at, but we mustn't forget down time, away time, time to reboot, if you will.
Email: Fourteen years ago I was fortunate to have a pioneering tech person at my school set up my email account when the rest of the staff swore it would never catch on. I was thrilled when the first listserv I subscribed to flooded my mailbox. I felt oh so popular! Since then, I've run the gamut of hoovering near the keyboard to not checking personal email for days. Email serves a certain purpose. It works for mass mailings and recording details of important correspondence, but can't replace the quick communication of a conservation. It's easy to see why fast-acting IM and texting have grown in popularity in the age of instant gratification.
IM: We've discussed adding this feature our library's reference service, but are short staffed and don't want to make promises we can't keep. For now, the Ask a Librarian link, personal visits and phone calls seem to suffice. We do use this feature among staff. Our library is so small, it's sometimes easier to just get up and walk over to a person.
Txting: OMG! I need to learn a new language! The video of the students texting the librarian in the library--Why didn't they just get up and ask her? My most recent pet peeve is trying to carry on a conversation with my daughter while she is constantly interrupted by text messages. This begs the question of techniquitte and boundaries of users. Boundaries again? Yup. It's obviously an issue I have with technology.
Webinars: The few I've attended worked just as well when I downloaded the slideshow and watched them myself. No one wanted to interupt the presenter and ask questions along the way.
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