RR+Life+as+a+Tech+User

I remember my first interactions with the Internet being a Juno email account, chat rooms and instant messaging. They were purely recreational activities. Now I can’t say I’d even be functional in my day-to-day life without the use of the Internet. I rely on my iPhone to keep me in touch with the rest of the world, primarily via text messages and Facebook activity, and to help me learn my way around a new city. This means using a lot of applications to help me figure out where I am and where I need to go, where things I need or want are located. They also help me answer any trivial questions that could pop up throughout my day like what the names of all the “Facts of Life” characters are, or how many layers I should wear to dress according to the weather.

As reliant as I am on technology, I’ll admit I’ve never been one to actually embrace it. I was the last person I knew of in my generation to get a Smartphone. My college roommate ended up setting up my Facebook account because I was so resistant to what I thought would be a fad. I have had a WordPress blog and a Twitter account for years and have used either all of about two times in those years. So I’m a little slow to take on new technology but highly reliant on the technology with which I’m comfortable. One of my personal goals for this class is to use it to familiarize myself with many of the Web 2.0 skills that are becoming more and more necessary in today’s communication practices.