Anyone who has met me and known me for longer than 5 minutes knows my love an loyalty for Apple. I used to practically eat, sleep, and breathe everything Apple. I know it’s hard for some to believe, but I’m not nearly as bad as I used to be.
And I’ve had my fair share of debates. Mac vs PC vs Linux, iPad vs Laptop/Desktop, and even Cloud vs Local Computing are just a few of the debates that I’ve fought. Believe it or not, I’ve even fought on both sides of most of them. But one thing I’ve always advocated is the fact that technology isn’t useful if you’re not going to use it. I’ve talked people down thousands of dollars simply because they were not going to use that much.
This is Elizabeth Murphy. To her many friends and family, she’s known simply as Ome. She loves Scrabble, trashy romance novels, and the Golden Girls. She’s been in the hospital since Wednesday of last week and she’s getting a pacemaker later today. Though she has one, she’s by no means a computer power user. Her fingers aren’t as agile as they once were, so typing is tough. But using an iPad to play Scrabble keeps her mind sharp and makes her have to use her hands. It’s part of her workflow. It’s what she does. When I first suggested to her that she use the iPad to play games, she laughed and said she could never learn it. But when I showed her something she knew, she took to it like a moth to a flame. She can play Scrabble to the end of a full charge on an iPad, which is pretty impressive considering the battery life.
Technology only works for people if they see the value in it and decide to use it. It’s taken me sometime to realize, but that’s my passion. I love helping people discover the value in technology. There’s nothing like taking 20 minutes after a meeting and showing people apps for their Mac. Their faces light up because in that moment, they just realized how much more powerful their computer has become for them. I still get chills when I talk to people about iPhone/iPad apps that help them capture moments, memories, and thoughts that would have otherwise escaped them.
So, with that said, some housekeeping. You may have noticed a few subtle changes here. While I’m not changing the name, I am moving this blog to more of a personal format. I’ll be focusing on living my life as a digital advocate, living my life as an example to people of the things that they can do with technology. It won’t be all tech all the time by any means, but I’m interested to see where this new format goes. Over the past two years since re-booting SocialMediaBirmingham.com, it’s helped build relationships, create new opportunities, and helped me discover entire new ways of thinking. For that, I thank everyone. Here’s to the next two.
