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Technology: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Is the digital age adding to your productivity?
Technology:
We love it.
We hate it.
We can’t do without it.
We resent it.
We rely on it.
We complain about it.
The above attitudes can change from day to day, or from hour to hour. Even confirmed techno-phobes now at least have a PC to explore the Internet and access email, as well as a cell phone and digital camera. From there you move on toward the ubiquitous BlackBerry and Twitter updates.
Several years ago, the complaint grew more frequent that it was becoming difficult to separate business and personal lives because of technology’s ability to find you anywhere. InterCall, a conferencing and collaboration services provider, has just completed a survey (March 2010) to evaluate how Americans regard technology today.
During this economic downturn, pressures have been ramped up. The results of this survey may either reinforce your attitudes or provoke you to make changes. Here are some of the key points:
GOOD
- Helps you be more efficient and productive (81%)
- Improves job satisfaction and morale when given good tech tools (72%)
- Provides an advantage over colleagues (58%)
BAD
- Constantly required to do more with less (48%)
- Doing the job of two people because of the recession (39%)
- Taking time off is increasingly challenging (47%)
- Needing to stay connected 24/7 (30%)
- Not being accessible during vacations shows lack of commitment (24%)
UGLY
There are two questions to answer before deciding whether to invest in another device:
- Will it be more efficient than something I already own?
- Do I have time to invest in learning to implement the new features?
The ugly part of technology stems from not pausing to consider these questions and then finding that your response would have been negative. At that point, you have invested unnecessary funds and/or added frustration and stress to your life because you have not mastered the latest purchase. Just being new does not guaranatee increased efficiency and effectiveness.
Which of the above findings resonate with you?
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