Being a member of Generation X puts me in a unique position to see the divide between how the generations view and use technology. Having watched technology integrate into everyday life puts my generation right at the crossroads of the “I don’t do computer” Baby Boomer generation and the “what’s a record player?” Generation Y. 

It’s an interesting place to be. I had a record player as a child, although they were replaced by cassette tapes and CD’s by the time I was in middle school. There were still chalkboards in my classrooms, although they were being abandoned for overhead projectors by high school. I hand wrote my papers until I started college in the fall of 1993, where professors required that all papers be typed and printed on at least a dot-matrix printer. And I heard my first cell phone go off in public when I was sitting in a class my senior year in college during the fall of 1996. 
 
We have come a long way. It’s hard to believe there’s a device for everything, and they keep developing new things and coming up with improvements on the old. Now laptops are lighter and faster, and are being slowly replaced by tablets. Books now come on e-readers and phones are smart. I remember a conversation I had recently with a person in their 50’s that was lamenting on how complicated things are. “I don’t need a phone smarter than I am,” she griped, “just make and take calls. That’s it.”


“I don’t know,” I said, “sometimes I need for my phone to be smarter than me so it can keep me from looking stupid.” 

She didn’t seem to understand that was the point of a smartphone – to keep you organized so you don’t look like a blithering idiot because you were late for a meeting (or worse yet, forgot about it), or because you didn’t get the e-mail that went out 2 minutes ago while you were dashing up the stairs. To her, it was all a pain in the rear. 

Personally, I feel technology has made my life better. I long ago determined that the most crucial tools in my life are my laptop and my smartphone. The laptop because I deal with a lot of documents and it keeps them all in one place and makes them easier to access, and the smartphone because the multiple functions keep me organized and give me up to the minute news and information when I need it. I don’t have to dig through file cabinets or track down a newspaper or television to find what I need. And after years of juggling paper in school I can say from experience that the less paper I have taking up space and giving me papercuts all over my hands, the better. A 5 pound laptop is nothing to carry around when I’m used to handling 30+ pound bird cages anyway. 

I do understand the concern that we’re getting too dependent on technology, and am glad I was raised in a generation that learned the “old way” and “new way” parallel to each other. I have nothing against file cabinets, calendars, or newspapers. The digital way just seems more efficient and easier to manage to me. In the end it’s a matter of personal preference. 
 
The digital world isn’t going away – in fact, it will continue to grow – but using it is a personal preference. There will always be holdouts and that’s their choice. For all the talk of going paperless, I don’t think it’s going to happen, at least during my lifetime. There are too many holdouts that cling to the old ways. Heck, I know people my own age that don’t own a computer and refuse to use anything more than a very basic cell phone. But at least we have a choice, and choices are good. We just have to be patient with one another and respect those choices as the world continues to evolve in the digital age. 

That’s all for today. Happy Friday to you tomorrow and I hope you  have a great weekend. 

Bye!

Last month, an interviewer asked me how I deal with the issue of technology in my writing. Specifically, they asked if I had concerns that including computers, cell phones, and other technological advances would "date" my work too quickly. My answer to this question was that technology is such an integral part of our real day to day lives that we can't afford to ignore it. In fact, I believe that not including technology runs the risk of dating your work by making it seem more antiquitated than it really is from the start. So I choose to use it, and in fact it's such an integral part of my books that I hope readers will grant me the grace of being as patient with this evolving nature of our lives in fantasy as they are in reality.

That's well enough, but as I was working on an article for the Mystery Readers and Working Writers Newsletter, I began to look at the issue from the other end and wonder: Am I as understanding of this issue as a reader as I am as a writer? The truth is, I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and only started reading mysteries myself in the past 3 years. Fantasy typically shuns technology in favor of magic, and sci-fi is so inventive that I can stretch my mind to imagine any number of advances for the setting. But I wonder how I'll fare as I continue to read in the mystery genre and find myself in that place as a reader where the characters are using devices that were updated last month. I'd like to say I'll be as patient as I hope my own readers would be but can't help but ponder when, say, I pick up Die Softly, by Christopher Pike, and wonder how that story would unfold now that cameras have gone digital and every home has a computer (or 2, or 3, and who knows how many mobile devices). Or Whisper of Death (also by Christopher Pike) and wonder how that story would have unfolded if they found those short stories foretelling their deaths on an e-reader instead of a notebook.I still love these books (and believe it or not, I pluck them off my shelf and re-read them typically once a year or so), but I can't help but ponder how those plots would have developed with some of our modern advances. 

Maybe that's not a bad thing. In fact, it might be good for our imagination by helping writers imagine twists on some of those old plots, and readers to keep them interested not only in the new things coming out but the older things that inspired them. For example, I'm sure I noticed that I mentioned 2 Christopher Pike books in the last paragraph. He was my favorite YA writer when I was in my teens, and I credit his work for being a huge influence on the development of Blurry and even my upcoming book, Anywhere  But Here (although that is an adult novel).

It's an interesting question to ponder and I'd like to pose it to readers. How do you feel about including technology in writing? Good idea? Bad idea? Or the unavoidable pink elephant in the room that each individual has to decide whether to address or ignore?

Happy Friday everybody, and I hope you have an outstanding weekend.

Bye!