Me, when I was at the vanguard of all technology (age 17)
I’m middle aged. I’m 42. And this side of ‘40’ has thus far resulted in reading glasses, having to wash the grey from my hair more frequently and more trips to the doctor in the past year than I’ve had in the past 20 years. Once I’ve finally got my head together, it’s my body that goes all Pete Tong.
Recently, however, I’ve become aware of another symptom of middle age – I’m no longer a product of the world in which I reside. The world of my youth is gone, a distant age symbolised by long dead VCRs, Pac-Mans and Walkmans, smoking in pubs, dial landline telephones, typewriters and cassettes. The new world, feels strange, disconnected from me. I do not want it to be this way. I want to be part of this world. I try. Look at me, typing on my laptop, texting on my phone, updating my blog, uploading photos, linking stories to YouTube, TED and my Facebook page. Me.
Yes me, who was, I’ll have you know, the first journalist in my hometown of Waterford to report on this new-fangled phenomenon called the ‘Internet’ way back in 1994. I’d been to New York and had seen it in action, me myself, personally like – came home and spread the word via my column in a local paper. So, I’m no Luddite, I’m all for the new. I just resent its alien nature, and wish it was as natural to me as, say, satellite TV was to my generation. Which is a very long winded way of announcing that only thanks to a younger, hipper and more plugged in colleague, I’ve returned to Twitter.
I joined Twitter yonks ago, but could never see the point in it – unless you were a celebrity and (sad) people were actually interested in what you were having for breakfast. So, I sort of gave up and linked my Twitter account to my blog and never checked it, nor tweeted. My colleague, Dan, has cajoled me into giving it another go, to tweet daily and make contact with cyber people, cyber readers and writers and publisher and agents and reviewers and people who might help my career (is mentioning that you’re doing this for networking reasons breaking some sort of etiquette?). So, I’ve updated my Twitter profile et al and I’ll give it a go. I’ll not be growing old gracefully, dammit!
suehealy 