ebooks

I am convinced that bound books will soon be as prevalent in literature as compact discs are in music. It's true, you can still buy CDs, but music has become highly digital. I'm curious how many people reading this blogs still use CDs frequently. Maybe there are more people than I would guess. With the amazing storage capacity of MP3 players and iPods, CDs only seems to serve the purpose of being ripped into digital form.

It seems that ebooks are moving books more and more into obscurity. I still love traditional books, but as the technology improves and becomes very affordable I find ebooks to have many attractive advantages. Prices are cheaper, purchasing is immediate and can be done anywhere, notes and highlights can be stored, words can be instantly defined, video and other multimedia can be integrated into them and all of my books can be kept in one place. In fact, it is the same place where I keep all my music, have my todo list, store my passwords, do my banking, study the Bible, play games, listen to podcasts, and budget my money.

In terms of education, textbooks are beginning to appear in electronic format from major publishers. Textbooks are very expensive and need to be constantly updated. When textbooks become digital schools can purchase them at a lower cost and pay for the updates without having to through out the old textbooks. In addition, these textbooks have the possibility of being interactive and attractive to the students.

Everyday Technology

With the rise of so many new and exciting types of technology it is easy to overlook some of the technology that has become such a part of everyday life. Often we only understand its value when it is no longer available or temporarily out-of-order. As someone who lives in a foreign country our family is constantly using our laptop computer and internet connection to connect with friends and family in the states. Facebook, blogging, and skype make being so far away from our loved ones a little more bearable. It also gives our parents the opportunity to see their grandchildren on a regular basis. When our internet connection goes out, our hard drive crashes or windows updates freeze our computer we realize how much we have come to depend on this technology.

I also use an iPod throughout the day for many different things. I use podcasts in both my personal and professional life for opporunities to grow. I also use many apps to help me manage my time. I have found it is this type of technology that actually might be more demanding in my life than it is worth in terms of benefits. I have tried a few goal setting and time management apps and have found that it is sometimes more work to keep updating the apps than to actually do the activity without writing it down. Figuring out how to use the app effectively can be difficult and time consuming for me as I can get obsessive about entering data. This is similar with financial planning programs and apps. Organizing and entering the data can be tedious and frustration so I have gone back to simple paper and pencil budgeting forms.