James Taylor: We Need To Be The Master Of New Technology

Then , only the mega - rich could afford mobile phones that were the size of a brick - they were more often a status symbol than a necessity.
Even the first one I had when I was in school, circa 1999 , was the size of a remote control and had an antenna that had to be removed to make a call .
They have gone through many changes since then. They gradually became smaller , until six or seven years ago I had one around the same size and thickness of a matchbook , but since then have become gradually larger to allow for larger screens , to allow we use them for a variety of different uses .
I still use mine as a phone : call to say when I'll be home or increasingly playing music - especially when I'm in the gym or to use an app for the latest news , online shopping or playing a game .

But comfort can bring risks : although I did not try, I often find myself checking my phone every few minutes.
I think I'm no different than anyone else. We are no longer willing to wait for people to call us back - we must find out who called , when, why and what we have lost .
It is six years since I started my first job in public relations at a local council and in a way it could also be 26. Although we had a website that was it. That was our only way by virtual communication with residents.
Facebook was around but widely used by people in their personal ability to connect with friends - real or virtual. Twitter also existed but was used by relatively few people , especially to follow celebrities.
We were told in no uncertain terms , that we would not use social media at all. The staff does not have access to social media , but was blocked from all our teams and we did not use it at all to communicate with residents.
Today is very different : I work for a different authority , but we use social networks all the time. I am often found in board meetings , tweeting the results of each agenda item . Most public agencies use , weather advisory for training times.

It is a very useful tool, but at the same time, we are anticipating , hoping for a quick response and we become increasingly annoying when the answer we receive is not instantaneous.
Like most of us , I am an enthusiastic user of new technologies , but we must be careful to ensure that you are his master, and not vice versa .