Wednesday 11 April 2012

on being resistant to change

ok, so now i have this whole new blogger set-up, and i'm trying to figure it all out.  when it comes to technology, i know i tend to be resistant to change.  it's not that i hate technology.  i think the internet is a wonderful thing - email, social networking etc has been such a blessing in organising so many things such as meetings, decisions outside of meetings, protests, or even a night out.  i still wonder how i managed life without a mobile phone.  i haven't bought one yet, but i really can't wait to get a e-reader and start buying e-books.

the problem i have is with learning all the new technology, and once i've passed the learning curve and feel that i'm on top of something, they go and change it.  whether it's facebook, gmail or blogger, or software updates for all kinds of programmes, we get these changes forced on us and we have to go through another process of learning how to deal with the changes.

these changes are supposed to bring us a new and improved version of what it is we are using.  but for people like me who don't want to invest a whole lot of time in doing lots of fancy and complicated things, a new and improved version is not helpful.  i want a phone that calls and txts.  i don't take photographs on my phone, even though i can.  i don't use the internet on my phone, even though i can.  i use the calendar/diary thingy and the phone book for my contacts, and that's it.  i'm not interested in doing more, and unlikely to buy a smartphone in the near future.

i'm still trying to figure out how to do the typeover thing in the new MS word - the function you used to get by pressing the "insert" button on the keyboard.  my new keyboard doesn't even have an insert button, and it's annoying to have to delete and then type.  i hate that facebook suddenly decided it would choose the updates i should read and the order i should read them in.  it's taken me ages to sort that mess out so that i can get my newsfeed to let me be the to choose what i want to read.  but given all the privacy issues with facebook, i've gone a little off it anyway.

i know i've written plenty of times that i don't look at the past with rose-coloured glasses.  i don't think the past was some golden and glorious age where things were oh-so-much-better than the terrible times we have now.  some things are worse and many things are better.  that's the way the world works.  in order for things to get better, there has to be change.  i totally understant that.  i just struggle with adapting, i guess.


another thing i'm struggling with is procrastination.  well i'm not actually struggling with it, i'm doing it.  a nice long holiday, an opportunity to catch up on the 101 things i desperately need to get done, but i didn't do any of them.  apart from the strategic planning day on friday, i spent much of the weekend lazing around.  however, i also know that this is one of the 101 things i have to do - ie take time out from rushing around, slow down, and just chill out.

another of the things i need to do very soon is put in an application to be on the board of another charitable organisation - one that needs setting up from scratch.  i guess i've been procrastinating on that because i already feel so stretched, and while i really want to be part of this new thing, i don't know if i've got the energy and motivation to put in the work required.  i'm hoping that i will get a moment of clarity when i least expect it.  or maybe it's that part of me which resists change that is getting in the way.

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