Technology Addiction or just a bit of a geek?

Today is my first day back in the office after a week’s holiday

We spent a quiet week in Norfolk just outside Hunstanton, me, my wife and my little girl (who is still in a plaster cast….it was heart breaking watching her run around on her first trip to the beach with a plastic bag wrapped around her arm to keep sand and water away) had a great time on our first proper family holiday

However, the mobile phone signal was dreadful and making phone calls or sending text messages was impossible, let alone trying to browse any web pages

I’d planned on finally giving Twitter a go while I was away but this was a no go.

While “switching off” from work is one thing, when your a “lifestyle geek” getting totally disconnected is something else altogether

Some people see these as the same thing where to take a break from work while on holiday you have to turn off your phone/laptop/etc off whereas I don’t. I see them as separate things (and let’s be honest if your running a business do you really ever completely switch off?)

But what do I mean by lifestyle geek?

I remember on family holidays as a child my dad would usually be first up in the mornings and disappear to the closest shop to pick up a newspaper to read while he was getting his day started

Fast forward to my first proper family holiday and one of my first instincts was to go to the mobile version of the BBC News site to check out the latest headlines followed by a trip to the mobile version of Google reader

I do these sort of things automatically without thinking.

My wife reports I was fidgety and grouchy for the first couple of days and that when we needed to resort to my laptop to watch a DVD after putting the little one to bed my eyes I was like a different person

Bit like an addict going cold turkey?

It reminded of reports you see all the time of people who are addicted to technology

Luckily to help get me back into the swing of things I’m doing a new SBS installation this week with plenty of other techie stuff to get buried in

The holiday was good and helped recharge my batteries so I’m looking forward to getting stuck in again!

Not really sure about point of this post now but it’s got me back on the “blogging horse” 🙂

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Andy Parkes is Technical Director at Coventry based IT support company IBIT Solutions. Formerly, coordinator of AMITPRO and Microsoft Partner Area Lead for 2012-2013. He also isn't a fan of describing himself in the third person.

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2 thoughts on “Technology Addiction or just a bit of a geek?

  • You’re not alone. Two things strike me when I go away for trips in remote locations. One – I suffer “online” withdrawal. I complain about the lack of Wi-Fi, or the poor Mobile signal. I need my fix of information – dammit! The second thing that happens is as a small business owner like yourself, I struggle to “turn off”. Around two days into the holiday I finally relax – then I get ill for a day or so! Built-up stress levels at fault? I’m not sure – it could be lack of RSS feeds that do it though… 🙂

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