I write about tech all day long, which is why it rarely makes an appearance on my personal blog. That's likely to change in about a month, though. I'm striking out on my own as a freelance writer and will need to do all the self-promotion I can in order to spread the word.
The changeover from staff member to self-employed has been a long time coming: by now I half expected to be a remote worker contracted by my employer and able to enjoy flexi-working. In fact, for most of us, flexi-working has ended up making us more tied to our day jobs, rather than less so.
Email alerts, Twitter replies, the need to keep your website ticking over all weekend as well as Monday to Friday - connectedness has made us more married to the job, not less so.
The consequences of not responding or not posting stories and updates - especially in the world of tech journalism - mean you lose out to competitors in terms of web traffic and ad impressions and are likely to find readers slipping away. The toll on those that set themselves these goals is a stressed out means of existence in which the battles you choose to win online rarely turn out to be those that the beancounter that monitors web traffic decides it values.
In order to counter this, 'easy' stories based on press releases, opinion pieces in the form of half-baked theories and reactions to other people's witticisms end up being the sort of posts that fill the chasm on far too many websites. The web is never sated and Google is our fickle master.
Such is the 21st century vogue for constantly updated information and feedback. It's certainly not limited to writing about tech, as the major websites such as the BBC and ITV compete for eyeballs and blatantly request readers get in touch if they're there at the scene or otherwise affected by the latest protest/terrorism incident/other scene of multiple deaths.
There's a certain excitement, I suppose, in being first on the scene, first with photos and details of a groundbreaking new gadget and first to post a review. But in the bigger scheme of things, it's not as important war, famine, education or the impact we're having on the planet. It's certainly not as important as eating and sleeping properly, having the time to catch up with friends or to pursue areas of interest beyond the day job.
Besides, far too many of those 'firsts' have been deliberately seeded, just as many anticipated gadgets 'break cover' just when it suits the maker to have them accidentally do so.
For all that I've just said, I'm not looking to stop writing about tech. Good gadgets are rightly prized - they make communications an awful lot easier and can quite literally be your mobile office. Give me a BlackBerry Bold, an iPhone 4 or an HTC almost anything, and I'm pretty much set. Email, web, phone, search, maps, access to endless information and data and the ability to call up whatever I need from my own work archive in return for a password.
Now that mobile flexi-working is here - and works - I'm ready to embrace it in a whole new way - one that works for me.
The changeover from staff member to self-employed has been a long time coming: by now I half expected to be a remote worker contracted by my employer and able to enjoy flexi-working. In fact, for most of us, flexi-working has ended up making us more tied to our day jobs, rather than less so.
Email alerts, Twitter replies, the need to keep your website ticking over all weekend as well as Monday to Friday - connectedness has made us more married to the job, not less so.
The consequences of not responding or not posting stories and updates - especially in the world of tech journalism - mean you lose out to competitors in terms of web traffic and ad impressions and are likely to find readers slipping away. The toll on those that set themselves these goals is a stressed out means of existence in which the battles you choose to win online rarely turn out to be those that the beancounter that monitors web traffic decides it values.
In order to counter this, 'easy' stories based on press releases, opinion pieces in the form of half-baked theories and reactions to other people's witticisms end up being the sort of posts that fill the chasm on far too many websites. The web is never sated and Google is our fickle master.
Such is the 21st century vogue for constantly updated information and feedback. It's certainly not limited to writing about tech, as the major websites such as the BBC and ITV compete for eyeballs and blatantly request readers get in touch if they're there at the scene or otherwise affected by the latest protest/terrorism incident/other scene of multiple deaths.
There's a certain excitement, I suppose, in being first on the scene, first with photos and details of a groundbreaking new gadget and first to post a review. But in the bigger scheme of things, it's not as important war, famine, education or the impact we're having on the planet. It's certainly not as important as eating and sleeping properly, having the time to catch up with friends or to pursue areas of interest beyond the day job.
Besides, far too many of those 'firsts' have been deliberately seeded, just as many anticipated gadgets 'break cover' just when it suits the maker to have them accidentally do so.
For all that I've just said, I'm not looking to stop writing about tech. Good gadgets are rightly prized - they make communications an awful lot easier and can quite literally be your mobile office. Give me a BlackBerry Bold, an iPhone 4 or an HTC almost anything, and I'm pretty much set. Email, web, phone, search, maps, access to endless information and data and the ability to call up whatever I need from my own work archive in return for a password.
Now that mobile flexi-working is here - and works - I'm ready to embrace it in a whole new way - one that works for me.
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