Too wired up?

For my regular readers, I didn’t mean to drop off the face of the earth as it may seem. I was busy offering training to a new client organization (communication skills, respect in the workplace, team building) as well as starting a new Nia class series focusing on communication, intimacy, and relationship.  And then when I was ready to draft a new blogpost, I spilled water on my 2006 macbook and it stopped working. I’m sure many, if not all of you, have experienced technical difficulties and know how that feels.

With a new macbook in hand, I’ve yet to recover what was on the old one (after being without one for a few days, I’m not ready to hand it over for the data recovery). This experience has brought home the realization of how much of my ‘life’ and work is contained within a tiny 13″ computer. It records a vast amount of communication that I engage in daily, thousands of documents of work done over the years, important records, photos, music, contacts, and more. While backing up is a way to hold onto all this (and I haven’t been vigilant about this; last full backup was likely six months ago!), it’s quite crazy in a way to be so dependent. My iPhone helped me do some necessary things in the few days I was without a computer, but it was shocking how often I relied on it.  Without an iPhone, it would’ve been even more evident how reliant I was. Beyond work, everything from checking store info, bus times, news, I currently do online as well. It shows me what a different world we live in today compared to even ten years ago.

How wired up are you? What if you didn’t have access for a few days or a week, what would happen? Do you even write down the info of your contacts and addresses of friends on paper anymore? Sad to say, I’m not a role model in this area.  Even my mom was asking me if I had backed up my info.  How does she even know what ‘backing up’ means, she barely uses a computer?!?

So this is a cautionary tale.  We may or may not need earthquake preparedness training, but we definitely need to know how to operate without our technical gadgets!  One thing I’ve been fairly vigilant about is not having any speed dialing on my phone or my computer remembering passwords. I key these things in manually. So just as it is spring cleaning time, perhaps you’ll want to take time to protect what is most important to you online.  It’s not just about backing up, but making sure there are other pathways to access what you most need.