Technology moves fast, but do we need to keep up?

Technology moves faster than we can keep up, but there are a few veritable truths about its progress, or lack thereof. That is the gist of this great little article by the NY Times' tech editor:
NY Times 11-25-10: Lessons of 10 years of talking tech

In my profession, law, we have gone from memory typewriters to fax machines to PC's to smartphones. Scanned documents supplement if not replace photocopies. Email and electronic court filing have replaced laborious paper filing and mailing of court papers, almost... We communicate day and night by email and cellphone. We instant message. We have gone from secretaries taking dictation on a steno pad to digital dictation, and voice recognition systems that enter text as we speak into our computers. Research using books is long gone; now we use the internet and electronic databases.

There is a lot good about this. I hate "telephone tag", and much prefer email messaging that I can read at my convenience and respond to. Modern word processing saves so much time and reduces the cost of repeated re-typing that my productivity is several orders of magnitude greater than it could be otherwise. Using forms and templates eliminates errors, reduces the amount of proofreading, and captures and preserves the value of learning the correct procedure and applying the correct law to regularly encountered court matters such as motions for stay relief or applications to retain my firm or othe professionals. Being able to use my smartphone to stay in touch out of the office makes valuable use of otherwise wasted time, and avoids my paying for every extended venture out of the office with a deluge of messages and correspondence to dig through.

On the other hand, I have not adopted all that is available. I do not use voice mail when there are people in the office. Call my office and you will speak to a real person, who will try to help you and often can address basic inquiries. As a result, I can view a list of messages in a written list, and am not required to plow through a pile of other less pressing messages to get to the one that needs immediate attention. And my clients do not have to navigate a "telephone tree" to get to me or someone who can speak for me. My clients have the experience of personal attention every time they call.

I draft or edit my documents on the computer at my desk. I take notes on my computer, where I can quickly find any of them for any case. This avoids my having to have a pile of files cluttering my office. At the same time, I have learned the hard way to always proofread briefs and contracts from hard copy, then give the document to someone else to read. It is amazing how many typo's become invisible on a video display.

While having 24-7 electronic access to our offices or the internet frees us to work or write when the mood or energy hits us, (I am writing this at the kitchen table while eating breakfast) that does not mean we need to be "on call" all the time. My Blackberry does not receive emails except when I am out of the office for extended time periods. Very few messages need instant replies. Very few cannot wait until the next business day or a short time until I am back in my office. What is more important is that messages are not ignored. What is more important is for me to "disconnect" at least part of each day to focus on other things and other people.

And however convenient electronic communications may be, there is still no substitute for the inflection and nuance of voice communication, or the connection of face to face communications.

And while programs, "apps" and operating systems are constantly evolving, I have learned to tread carefully before moving to what works now to the latest, greatest thing. Windows 7 Professional is vastly superior to Windows XP, but it took years of "beta testing" through a little program called Windows Vista to get it to where it was. Or as one wag put it "You can always spot the pioneers in a group...they're the ones with arrows in their backs."

So, technology is a boon for all of us, but how we incorporate it into our personal and professional lives is up to us.