Towson
My computing habits

In Fall 2004, I took COSC 321, about technology and society. This is one of the first essays, about personal technology use:

I admit it: I am a compulsive e-mail user, communicator, blogger, and content consumer. I spend innumerable hours each day utilizing technology. Without a stopwatch, it would be impossible to measure exactly how often I check e-mail and use the Web, because it is so pervasive. When I wake up in the morning, I check my e-mail. Before I go to bed at night, I check my e-mail. (Sometimes, I check it again when I wake up in the middle of the night.)

I use technology in different ways based on the different "hats" I wear:

As the news editor for the Towerlight, I communicate with sources, develop story ideas, assign stories, communicate with writers, edit stories and lay out the news section of The Towerlight newspaper twice a week. This is a full-time job unto itself, and every piece of it is accomplished via computer. I call and e-mail sources and writers. I use a computer for writing, editing, and laying out. I check my Towerlight e-mail account at least ten times a day, and I'm constantly backlogged with e-mail.

As a blogger, I e-mail constantly and use the Web to produce content. I write a blog called TVNewser.com. It covers television news for Mediabistro.com. I am one of the few bloggers who are paid for their work, so I'm required to post 8 to 15 items each weekday. Consequently, I check my blog e-mail account dozens of times today, and have a second e-mail address for my cell phone so I can be alerted to breaking news. I spend a couple of hours each day posting blog entries on the site.

As a web site designer, I communicate with employers from the Montgomery County Public Schools system and develop their web content. I primarily use e-mail for this, as well. I use Notepad to create the sites, FTP to upload the files, and Internet Explorer to view the finished product.

As a Towson student, I check my e-mail regularly and use the Towson web space to store personal files. Only occasionally do I aimlessly surf the 'net - instead, I use it to find information for school.

As a friend, brother, and son, I use AOL instant messenger to keep in touch. I'm online around the clock, but usually with an away message.

Several advances in technology would enable more productive use of my computing time. I yearn for a "super-mailbox" that would combine my four e-mail accounts in one location. I'd love to own a Blackberry, but I would want to set up filters so that only certain pieces of mail forward to it. I'd like better methods of flagging e-mail, so that I know which messages need an immediate follow-up, or which should be archived, or which can be deleted without reading them.

I appreciate web sites that act as a compiler of information on a specific topic. Many blogs are good at this, but I wish there were more sites I could read and immediately feel up-to-date on different fields I am interested in.

I use Google obsessively -- Instead of memorizing URLs or referring to bookmarks, I just search for what I'm looking for. If Google could follow me around as a personal 411 and remember my traits and habits, it would become even more effective.

There is a common thread in all these issues: It's the packaging of content. The information I need is out there, but it's not always easy to get to.