Month: June 2010

Are You Addicted to Online News?

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You are working on an assignment, or perhaps a PowerPoint presentation and then suddenly you feel the urge to check your favorite newspaper website for the latest updated news. It could be the BBC, CNN, The Boston Globe, The Straits Times or the Times of India. The question is – do you really need to be constantly updated about somebody else’s take regarding the events happening in the world? Are your online news reading habits becoming an interruption to you, your work and the flow of your thoughts?

Now I do not blame the news providers for this, they are following and doing what they do best. The problem lies in our own mind and the habits we have created. We are addicted to news reading – or least a vast majority of business owners and professionals are. Earlier it was just the morning fix of news. But now with wireless internet coupled with laptop warriors around the place, it is continuous. You can keep checking the news 24 hours and keep reading endlessly about what is happening all over the world. The question is do we really need to know so much about everything?

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The iPad – An Innovation that Transforms

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I recently bought Apple’s latest product – the iPad. The move was more of an intuitive impulse, rather than a labored and thought through process; the latter being a more regular style when I am adding new technology to my life. In this case the decision was swift and instant, almost as soon as I could lay my hands on a piece (note: currently the iPad is only available in the US and some other European markets). It was like my intuitive self said “go for this one”.

What I have seen in the last few days is simply spectacular and basically transforms the manner in which I interact with my information, work, audio and video. While there are many reviews on the internet looking at the technical aspects of the iPad, I do not intend to get into a lot of those. My requirements are more basic. I need to be able to work with my photo albums, work related files (word, excel, power point), my music, the internet, email, client documents, watch videos and read the occasional book online. The iPad fits these needs perfectly.

The key differentiating factor of the iPad is its form factor and ergonomic design. On a very fundamental and visceral level the iPad feels “normal” to hold, work with, carry and relate to. Finally I can say goodbye to those “bulky laptops”. Here is something that feels like a very thin book in my hands (it’s only 0.5 inches thick) and is potently powerful. It has a wondrous screen with great space and multiple touch capabilities, a top class and large (on-screen) keyboard (please do not think of the iPhone – the iPad’s screen and keyboard are a class of its own and something with which you can comfortably word process even with large fingers and at a fast pace).

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Information Grasshoppers: Does the Internet distract us?

The internet has been truly liberating. By any standard it has put the world at our fingertips. I find the internet useful for a large number of tasks, information, entertainment and even conducting work. But here is a flip side – has the internet changed the way our brains are responding to the incoming overload of information. From being minds that look deeply into the nature of things, issues, universal principles (scientific, spiritual, geographic etc.) and conducting in-depth analysis; have we become “information grasshoppers” skimming a little bit of everything? With such a multitude of information, with the ease of hyperlinked data and threads, does the brain lose its ability to focus? The ability to narrow in on a topic – like say in a good 300 page book – is that quality of the mind disappearing? Because the brain keeps adapting to how information comes in – in the early days it was oral, then the written word with paper and books and now TV and the internet.

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