I was just reading some Twitter posts. Yes, I know it does not surprise some of you that I have a Twitter account. I am an on again, off again, on again Tweeter. I do not do it regularly all of the time. I am not even sure that I use Twitter like I am supposed to, most of the time.
I just never really got the whole Twitter craze when it first started. There were a few reasons. Mainly, it was so restrictive! I have a tendency to be a little long winded at times. To fit all that flows around in my head into 140 characters? It is not always possible. Many times I have started a tweet only to delete it and type it out and delete it and type again and delete it and finally just give up entirely because I cannot successfully truncate the thought down enough to appease the Twitter character gods.
A strange thing for many to believe coming out of my mouth, or through my fingers as the case may be. The truth is that I am an English major through and through. I might not have finished that degree, but it rings through every pore of my being. It is what it is. I believe in grammar although there are times when I do not always practice and you are probably laughing at my long, run-on windy sentences at this very moment. I do believe in the use of more select words. I do not believe in contractions all the time. I like to see the more powerful forms of the words. I like strong words over weak words. I do believe in limiting the use of “to be” verbs. I do believe in using full words and not using the silly techno language that is all so common today. Type out before, not b4. We are not playing bingo. We are communicating.
Alas, I digress.
Lately, I have been using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed. There are a lot of terms that can be used to describe what a RSS feed is for those of you who do not know. RSS can stand for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Essentially it is a summary of what is coming off of a website. To be honest, this is not what Twitter is intended to be. However, for me it is working because a lot of the individuals and businesses that I follow on Twitter are just awesome like that. They post amazing links to a variety of different things that are on the topics that I want to read about and follow. So for me it is just a glorified RSS feed. Kind of. It works for me and that is what I am going to call it and it is helping me find some wonderful and amazing stuff about things that I would have spent hours surfing the web for otherwise and may not have found even then.
The point?
Through this reading of posts, I found this article by Luke Wroblewski entitled Multiple Device Users. Why did I find this so interesting? Mostly because it proves that many of us are in fact, just part of the statistics. How we accept this is really irrelevant. I am going to embrace it, for now. This is one of those things where I do not feel that it is all that bad to be part of the statistics. Not all statistics are bad after all.
Here are some of his findings that he points out:
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More than 75% of US adults own laptop or desktop computers, 44% own a smartphone, and 18% own a tablet. (source)
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Over half, 52%, of of US desktop/laptop owners now also own a smartphone and roughly a quarter, 23%, own a tablet computer. (source)
How do you measure up?
I fall into the 75% on both accounts. I own both. I have not touched my desktop computer in a few years, but it is still in my possession. I will be buying another laptop instead of another desktop when the laptop comes up for replacement.
I also fall into the 44%. I own a smartphone. I did not go 100% willingly to the smartphone when I got it. It was a Christmas gift from my husband. My phone was dieing and I needed a new phone. He purchased me an iPhone. I will not be going back to anything other than a smartphone or the like. Technology is good. What this phone does for me on a daily basis is amazing. It has made a difference in my life. It has helped tremendously in keeping me on track and on time. I set alarms when I am out and about and I do not forget to go pick up children from school any more. I still get lazy about doing some things, but that does not mean that it is the phone’s fault. I am proudly in the 44%.
I do not currently fall in the 18%. Currently.
I do, however, fall within the 52% that own both a computer (of some form) and a smartphone. Yes, that I am also proud of. In the day and age we are living in, computers are what they are and we should have access to them and they do make our lives easier if we quit trying to avoid them.
Another reason that I found this article, as brief and to the point as it was, interesting is because it addresses something for me that is dear to me. It addresses a key issue in my field of skill set. How do we focus on the variety and maintain our sanity? In the web industry we are always evolving and forever changing and then just when you think you have caught up, you are behind again. I always feel like I am behind. I have come to accept that. It leaves me to do what I do best, learn.
Now we take these statistics and we learn from them. We take them and embrace them and we learn how to adapt and adjust to make it work for everyone. Life is forever changing. We cannot stop that. We can, however, embrace change.
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