Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

The Bane of the Backspace Button

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I learned how to touch type over 25 years ago. I type fast, but I’ve developed a terrible habit of hitting backspace while I’m typing to correct mistakes on the go.  Rather than typing continuously and fixing mistakes later, I interrupt my flow to backspace and correct. It’s worked into the rhythm of my typing. Even while typing this paragraph, I’ve hit the backspace several times to correct a few tiny things!

Many computer apps now autocorrect spelling while we are typing, but even that hasn’t done anything to deter my habit. I can tell I’m not the only one who does this. If you ever listen to other people type, you can distinctly hear the percussive click and break in one’s typing rhythm as they hit the backspace, rather than move ahead and fix mistakes later.

It’s puzzling how I developed this deeply ingrained habit. Even my awareness does little to deter me from backspacing to correct. It slows me down. Sometimes the disruption to my flow causes me to lose thoughts mid-sentence and I still keep doing it. Why?  Why is the impulse to immediately correct a mistake so strong?

I’ve been playing music for 30+ years. When learning to sight read music, I remember how hard it was to break the habit of going back to correct mistakes. Sight reading is a skill many musicians develop that enables us to play music we’ve never seen before and that we may, or may not, have heard before. We read music on the page similar to how we might read words on a page.

In the beginning, it was hard for me to sight read music without stopping and/or going back to fix mistakes and replay a passage where I had missed a note or played a rhythm incorrectly. With practice, I learned to keep moving forward and leave mistakes behind, mostly because I was sight reading in a group. If I went back to correct mistakes, I would get lost and mess up everybody else.

The most important thing with sight reading is to keep up with the other musicians, even if it means playing the wrong thing at the right time. I can always fix things on a subsequent reading, or not, and that’s okay too.

Why is it so hard for me to break this habit when I type? Maybe it’s because typing is done in solitude.

 

Human Archives

Running Free

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One day in the locker room, after a particularly rigorous aquafit class, my friend and I were chatting with one of the other participants. The woman was in her 80’s and enjoyed her weekly deep-water aquafit. When doing aquafit in the deep end, participants wear a flotation device around their waists to keep them afloat while they do the exercises under the water.

I love aquafit for many reasons, but it was inspiring for me to hear this woman’s story. She told us how she used to love running when she was younger, something that she was no longer able to do on land because of various physical limitations. Supported by the water (and the flotation device) she could run! Her eyes lit up as she described the feeling of the movements, the ease with which her body could move, and the fluidity of her legs churning underwater. She was able to recreate the sensation of running in the water.

It resonated with me strongly as I often feel seal-like going through my day-to-day activities. Awkward and ungainly on land, a graceless hump moving through space (ok, slight exaggeration). But in the water, I can swirl and glide, moving unimpeded and freely. The water supports me, enabling me to move in new and wonderful ways. My arms become powerful pinwheels propelling me through the water. I feel the strength of my legs powering me ahead. Or I can float peacefully, drifting quietly with no particular direction in mind.

Technically this is a sea lion and not a seal, but the sentiment is the same.

I was inspired by this octogenarian’s spirit and creativity.  Her resilience and adaptability to recreate the sensations she craved and the things she loved.

It’s an amazing thing when we allow ourselves to run free of our own limitations and constraints. To move past the pressures and restrictions we so often place on ourselves. And if we let our imaginations go with it, we can be transformed, maybe even into one of these magical, graceful aquatic animals, at least for a brief period of time.

Feeding dolphins. They swim fast when they’re hungry.

Sea turtle resting.

Digital Dilemma

Testing Testimonials

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Last month I watched a news story about an investigation performed by CBC to discover the identity of a “serial” testimonial giver. According to the story (article here), one woman had been hired by dozens of companies to give glowing video testimonials for various products and services. In each video, the woman portrayed a different character to fit the product or service being promoted (e.g., a financial advisor, a licensed dietician, teacher, etc.).

I often look at peer reviews to get a sense of how good a product, service, place, or restaurant might be. Even when reading peer reviews, I’m thinking about how to evaluate the quality of the reviewer. As I wrote about earlier (in Irony of the Information Age), when reading a bad review, sometimes it’s hard to tell if the product was inferior, or if the person simply had trouble using it.

When I read reviews, I look at a mix of ratings, often balancing out my selection with a few from the middle (4/5 stars or 2/5 stars). Somehow I feel like some of these have a better chance of being genuine. However, after listening to this news story, I’m definitely going to be even more discerning when reading (or watching) online reviews. I always knew that companies hired people to give positive testimonials, but it didn’t stop me from reading them. It just meant that peer reviews could only be one part of the selection process.

It’s unfortunate that so many peer reviews are disingenuous because it’s one aspect of the selection process that can be the most helpful. Often when I search online for help with something technical, I prefer to get it from peers instead of the vendor because my peers will use the product like I do and therefore have more targeted solutions. A company can’t always anticipate how someone will decide to use their product. For that reason, I prefer to read/watch peer tutorials, because they’re (often) not financially motivated.

Even before the internet and social media existed, how often would you call a friend for a review or recommendation of something? And how likely were you to trust that person’s testimony?

The internet is supposed to be this amazing space where anybody can have their voice heard, but what about when those voices are paid, or endorsed, and we don’t know that? Who are we supposed to trust?

Digital Dilemma

Party Line

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The other night I was calling a friend through WhatsApp (a popular messaging app), when another call came through on the actual phone. I rarely use my smartphone for actual phone conversations so it was new for me to have more than one call come through on different platforms. The call was still ringing on WhatsApp when I answered my phone without knowing what would happen. (Turns out the WhatsApp call disconnected when I accepted the incoming call.)

Later that evening, I was using Google Hangouts to chat with a friend (yet another messaging service I use) when another call came through on the phone. I accepted the phone call, again without knowing what would happen to the Hangout call. I kept my phone conversation brief and generic, imagining that my friend on Hangout was able to quietly listen to everything. It reminded me of a time before smartphones and call waiting. I’m not old enough to have experienced “party lines” (shared phone lines from decades ago), but I do remember when call waiting first became a thing and how many calls were accidentally merged instead of being switched seamlessly from one to the other.

When I’m talking on the phone and another call comes through, I have three options:

  1. accept the new call and disconnect the existing one;
  2. accept the new call and put the existing one on hold; or
  3. accept the new call and merge it with the existing one.

However, when calls are coming through on different apps, these options are not offered so I’m not sure what is supposed to happen.

When I answered the phone while on Hangout, the Hangout call was put on hold and my friend couldn’t hear anything. However, when I switched back, I couldn’t tell she was on hold and tried to call again through Hangout. Eventually we reconnected, but it wasn’t as easy as it could have been if both calls had been on the same service.

Using different messaging apps (WhatsApp, Hangout, etc.) has been great for keeping in touch with friends who live in other countries because calls are free. And many of the apps also support video calling. However, it does get confusing trying to keep track of all the calls, or to remember who to contact through which app.

Remember when phones used to just be for calling people?

 

 

 

Digital Dilemma, Digital Photos, True Confessions

Information Curation

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Over the holiday I started working on my digital scrapbook projects. It felt nice to review pictures of warmer times while listening to the wind howl outside my windows. I flipped through photos of vacations taken to sunny climates. Swimming. Laying near the beach. Going rock climbing.

Our trusty kayaks waiting for us as we lunched on the rocks above.

One big difference I’ve noticed in the process is choosing which pictures to place in the scrapbook. I’m overwhelmed with options and I get decision fatigue often. It makes the process very time consuming, especially when I have to go to multiple locations to see all the photos. I selected the image above from many similar ones of the kayaks tied up at different locations throughout our 4-day trip last summer.

However, the more pictures I select, the more I can fit on the page, but then the smaller they become. So many compromises to make! The image below wouldn’t be as nice if it were too small.

One of many stunning views while rock climbing in Lake Tahoe.

Volume was more contained when pictures were still printed, likely for practical reasons (space, cost, managing, etc.). It would have been difficult for most of us to obtain the same large volume of photos/videos with older technology. But on the other side, features have been developed to accommodate the volumes, some of which can automate the hard work of organizing and managing photos.

Every time I create a digital scrapbook, I feel keenly aware that I’m somewhat crafting my own history by the choices I make, sometimes from hundreds of options. Cost is definitely a factor for me because I like to get my digital scrapbooks printed. So I carefully go through them to choose the best representatives, or my favorites. I’ll often limit how many scrapbook pages are dedicated for each set of photos.

Each time I look through one of my scrapbooks, I become more familiar with the highlights of the event I memorialized. The narrative I designed by the images I chose and the accompanying text. I wonder, as time passes, will I only remember these few curated moments of the experience?  The ones that match the photos I selected?  Will I forget about all the other small details and things that happened if I can’t see all the photos?

And then I wonder, if that’s such a bad thing.

 

 

 

Human Archives, True Confessions

Floating

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With the start of the New Year, we often put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be better, healthier, more organized, etc. We convince ourselves that we can change decades of bad habits and stick with it the minute the clock ticks from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1. But maybe with resolutions, we don’t need to be so resolute with ourselves. Sometimes it’s best to decide not to decide just yet. Keep your goals in mind, but remain open to possibility and unexpected outcomes.

Last summer I had the good fortune to go on an amazing 4-day kayaking trip with my family in the Johnstone Strait, off the coast of northern Vancouver Island. We went in August when we would be most likely to see orcas, an animal that has been at the top of my mom’s wish list for decades, although there were no guarantees. Even though there are 3 resident pods of orcas in that area, they are wild and could show up anywhere at any time. And we intended to be ready for them, paddling in our kayaks, floating and waiting.

Day 3 of the trip stands out as a highlight in my mind. We started paddling that morning in a thick fog, obscuring the landscape in a blanket of wet, gray mist. The edges of the land peeked out enabling us to use the shoreline to guide our path.

 

Some birds hanging out on the bull kelp.

Suddenly, we heard loud smacking and cracking noises ricocheting off the haze around us. Humpbacks! They were close. We could hear them, but we couldn’t see these massive 40-ton animals sliding through the fog. It was eerie, exciting, and magical, all at the same moment.

The fog started to clear as we disembarked on land for a small break.

The fog starting to clear as we took our morning break on land.

Each passing minute revealed more of the landscape. Every turn offered a new vista, stunning and pristine. We paddled close to seals, splayed out on the rocks in an array of tawny and gray colored bullet shapes. Bald eagles dotted the trees with their bright white heads, surveying us from above.

A seal peered at us curiously as we glided by in our kayak.

In the afternoon, orcas! We were lucky. Our kayaks were right in the middle of a few orcas swimming by.

The dorsal fins of three orcas cutting through the water near our floating kayaks.

Sometimes when you just relax and spend time floating, the best things come your way. If you’re too resolute about what’s supposed to happen when, you may miss out on alternate possibilities and unexpected, yet delightful, outcomes.