I was quite amazed at the amount of technology being used on the cruise and I'm not talking about the overpriced internet area of the ship. That was mostly vacant. $0.75 per minute?? Ridiculous.
What I saw were a multitude of Kindles, iPads, Tablets & all sorts of phones and not all being used by young people.
We sat in the waiting area before embarking on the ship and an older couple sat there peacefully reading their books on their Kindle. Close by sat a young couple playing spider solitaire with the girl giving her partner instructions on how to play.
We get on the ship and there are photos being taken with iPhones etc (yes one of them was me) and fabulous digital cameras.
There were theme night dinners and the girl I sat next to, early 30's, had an iPad. I asked her what she used it for. Mostly photos and movies but she liked Shazam to identify songs being played around her. She showed us what she had saved.
I then had breakfast with a retired gentleman and his wife. His love was his iPhone 4S. He told me all about taking photos and how it geotagged everything so he didn't have to remember where or when he took the photo. He also told me about an online alternative to windows called Ubuntu. I will look this up and see what it offers. His wife on the other hand didn't want a bar of it and doesn't even own a mobile phone.
I really enjoyed chatting to these other tech savvy people and really felt it related to what we are doing with this project, encouraging people to get the best out of technology to suit their particular needs.
Unlike you Karen, I tried to utilise as little technology as possible on my holiday as it was all about doing the non-technical things in life like visiting galleries with real artwork eg the Modern Women exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. I also enjoyed making a beautiful bird in the children's section out of scrap materials and getting in touch with my inner creative child, doing SoulCollage with my sister and reading real books you can hold in your hand! However, I couldnt escape technology altogether as I had to check emails to get plane booking confirmations etc but I managed to ignore the millions of other emails about work issues that were in there as well. I did take the iPad but rarely used it - just checked FB and HootSuite to keep in touch with people and feel like I have had a good break from all things technical and now can get right back into it all with gusto!
ReplyDeleteHowever, because of it all I am now so far behind with everything its my first day back and I can feel myself working back up into my normal stress levels already lol! Ah well, thinking about the USB Tools for the ementor Moodle has got me back into the swing of things "E" very quickly!