Digital Dilemma

Evite vs. Invite

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Recently I was helping a friend put together her first evite (aka electronic event invitation).  While setting everything up I couldn’t help but remark on the awesome things evites offer that can’t be replicated with their physical counterparts.  Here are some of the many things I love about evites:

  • No stamps necessary
  • Takes minutes to create and send an evite
  • Received instantly, no worrying about invitations getting lost in the mail
    • Although sometimes it might go directly to somebody’s spam folder
  • Easy to send reminders/messages to invitees or attendees (e.g. if you still need responses)
    • With some evite apps reminders can be scheduled in advance to be sent at certain times (e.g. 1 week before the event)
  • Easy to add people and resend after the invitation was sent
  • Tracks attendees, no need to manage piles of RSVPs and create lists
  • Provides a map hyperlink to the event location
  • Easy to edit or correct mistakes in the evite
  • Easy to access the information when you’re out and about
  • Eliminates paper waste

On the flip side, there’s something nice about receiving a paper invitation in the mail.  Maybe it’s because we get so few pleasurable things via snail mail these days.  I have two friends getting married this spring.  Even though I knew about both events, it was still nice when to receive the formal invite in the mail.  Physical invitations include a lot of detail and tactile information that is missed in the evite. For example the weight of the paper selected, whether or not the ink is raised, handwritten touches, or embellishments adhered to the paper.

One set of friends hosted a small party for the bridal party and gave us all hand-crafted invitations, even though we’d all been asked verbally.  It felt special to be asked formally with a paper invitation, including a nice handwritten note, some homemade decorations, and a cool ribbon to tie everything closed.  These elements are largely absent with the evites.

Similar to ebooks, I prefer the evite over its physical counterpart because they’re fast, easy, and practical.  However, I do feel like we miss out sometimes.  When I’m going to an event I definitely want to have all the information available electronically rather than carrying around the paper.  On the other hand I also like the experience and anticipation of receiving a physical invitation.  These days it feels like a real novelty.

 

 

 

 

Deletion, Gmail, Google

Swiping Action

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What does swipe action mean?  

Swiping offers us humans a way to process things quickly on our smartphones, or tablets, by moving our fingers in a certain direction over the screen.  On most devices and apps swiping corresponds with an action (e.g. change screen, delete, archive, next, etc.). In some settings the swipe can be customized to reflect the actions you use the most.  This is definitely something worth exploring with apps you use frequently as it can save time and effort.

When I first started using the Gmail app on my smartphone a few years ago I felt annoyed that the default action for swiping was Archive, especially since I didn’t really understand what Google meant by Archive.(Read about what it means here.)  At that time there was no way to change this.  Sometime last year I discovered that the default swipe action can now be changed to Delete.

The Gmail app will come with Archive as the default action because everything is geared towards having us save as much as possible, all the time.  Here’s how to change it, in case you’re interested.

Go to settings in your Gmail smartphone app.  If you have a lot of folders, or labels, you will need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list to find Settings.

  • Select Settings and then General Settings.  (Image immediately following.)
  • Select the first option: Gmail default option
  • When the popup box appears, select Delete (See second image below.)
Select the first option: Gmail default action

Select the first option: Gmail default action

 

 

Option to select Archive or Delete as the default swipe action.

Option to select Archive or Delete as the default swipe action.

 

How is this useful in Gmail?

When I’m looking at a list of emails in my inbox, if I place my finger on a particular email and swipe right, the email will be deleted by default.  (This is contrary to the “swipe right” reference on Tinder, which is when somebody is saying “yes” to match with a profile.)

It makes it super fast for me to process emails, especially promotionals or social notifications, most of which I know can be deleted without even opening the message.  In case you make a mistake, or get a little swipe-happy like me, and accidentally delete something, an UNDO option is offered immediately.  Or you can restore it from the Trash folder for about 30 days.

Happy swiping!

Spring Cleaning, True Confessions

Moving. Ugh.

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I moved in January.  I always find moving equal parts excitement and annoyance combined with a healthy amount of stress.  It’s not just the physical effort involved to relocate my things, moving also requires addresses to be updated, plus time spent going through everything.  I had already invested time and energy preparing my things in anticipation of moving, since I had desperately been wanting to move for months. In the weeks leading up to the move my ego was interested to see if the stress and annoyance would be reduced simply because I had already been preparing for months.  Plus, I aim to be a minimalist and I figured moving was the perfect time to put my methods to the test.

I rented reusable plastic tubs from a company named Frog Box.  They eliminated the time needed to assemble/disassemble cardboard boxes and waste.  I also hired movers for the steep 3-floor walkup.  My first hurdle was ordering the right number of tubs.  The orders came in three sizes: Minimalist, Regular, and Collector.  I wanted to order Minimalist and stand by my delusional beliefs about my habits, but I went with the Regular and added in two wardrobe boxes.  Time limit: Sat Jan 2 – Monday Jan 11, 9 days.

The 2-bedroom regular order: 35 large tubs, 5 small tubs, plus two additional wardrobe boxes.

The 2-bedroom regular order: 35 large tubs, 5 small tubs, plus two additional wardrobe boxes.

The packing went fairly smoothly.  I packed for a few hours each day.  Fortunately my mother flew in to help me for the last couple days before the move.  I was one step away from throwing things into tubs.  The tubs piled up.  Everywhere!  Despite my best efforts to stay organized, it seemed like there was always one more thing that needed to be packed.

One lonely shelf discovered unpacked minutes before the movers arrived!

One lonely shelf discovered unpacked minutes before the movers arrived!

Throughout the process I kept wondering “do I have a lot of stuff?”  I felt self-conscious that I needed almost 40 tubs to hold all my possessions, plus all the furniture and other bulky items stored separately.  However, many of the tubs only had a few things in them (e.g. food processor or blankets) and were easy to unpack.

Tubs in Progress

We only had 3 days to empty all the tubs so we had to move fast, even though some things didn’t have a proper home.  I noted the order in which I emptied the tubs to see if it would be the inverse of how I had packed them.  It wasn’t.

The move was annoying, but overall it did feel less stressful and less time consuming than previous times.

Moving: Lost & Found

Moving: Bearing Witness

Moving: Critical Tips

Moving: Panic vs. Proper Packing

Moving: Dealing with Transitions

Moving: Facing the Moment of Truth

Digital Dilemma, Digital Photos

Digital Distortion

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Some weeks ago on the subway 3 tween-aged girls sat next to me.  One girl was beside me.  One girl was sitting on the third girl’s lap in two seats perpendicular to the ones I was in only because she had spotted what she deemed “the largest pube she’d ever seen” on one of the seats and had refused to sit in it.

I watched in fascination as the horrified girl whipped out her phone to capture and memorialize the moment. Clearly this is the kind of thing one wants to remember.  After a stop or two, the girl on the bottom pushed the other one off and moved to the other seat right on top of the large pube!  The first girl squealed in disgust as the other one sat down on the seat while mumbling it wasn’t really a pube and to get over it.  Within seconds the incident was forgotten, except that it had already been captured with a photo and maybe even a posting.  I can’t help but think this girl’s immediate reaction to memorialize something gross gives the errant hair greater importance than it deserves.

As a regular public transit user even I get grossed out by something once in a while.  However, I can’t recall a single time when I wanted to document it, especially if it was something really ordinary like hair, gum, or a spilled drink.  Most of the time I’m trying to forget the annoying, disgusting, and sometimes traumatic things that happen to me (and others) on public transit.  I certainly don’t want to retain images of gross subway things, even if they did cause a moment of hilarity, laughter, or discussion with somebody else.

When we look back at our lives, and even the way we form our memories, I keep thinking about how easy it is to record things digitally.  In some ways, I think that gives us a distorted sense of what was really important.  Sometimes when I’m really enjoying myself, I’m too caught up in the moment to think about capturing it. Maybe there are times where we take a picture of something thinking that it will be the most important, most life-changing thing EVER and we will always want to remember it.   Then in reality it turns out to be a harmless piece of hair on a seat, instantly forgotten the minute somebody sits on it.

Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Internet of Things, part II

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Recently I went shopping for appliances. I was overwhelmed with all the options, but space restrictions allowed me to quickly narrow down the list.  I was amazed at the number of “smart” appliances on display, all part of the Internet of Things.  For example, one refrigerator came equipped with a computer inside to track my usage and adjust the energy expenditure based on the activity.

The “smart” fridge has been on the market for several years.  Some of the more advanced models offer to track expiration dates or when a certain product is low so it can be added, automatically, to your grocery list. One model even had an electronic board built in to eliminate handwritten notes and fridge magnets.

I was especially interested in the aspect of saving energy.  My previous refrigerator was so old that a number of friends remembered growing up with the style so I would place it circa 1980’s.  I should also add that I paid for my electricity and I’m sure the fridge was consuming a lot of it, mostly because it was old, enormous, and didn’t seal properly. However, when I had the choice between buying the more expensive “smart” refrigerator or the regular, but still energy-efficient model, I went with the “dumb” one.  It was the thought of maintenance that impacted my decision the most.

Some years ago a friend of mine had a problem with her car.  It was an older model and the mechanic often had to scour the junkyards for suitable replacement parts, as the manufacturer no longer produced them.  One repair had to be customized by the mechanic.  While the replacement part was perfectly functional and able to fix the problem, the computer in the car didn’t recognize the part and refused to work with it making the vehicle unreliable.

This thought crossed my mind when I thought about future repairs on the “smart” fridge.  Would I call a technician or somebody in IT?  Will future repair people need degrees in computer science in addition to learning their trade?  What if there was an internet glitch that caused the fridge to malfunction even if it was still mechanically sound?  What if somebody hacked my “smart” fridge?

The Internet of Things is still gaining momentum and here to stay, meaning we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Digital Dilemma, Facebook, Social Media

Memory Maker

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Earlier this month, at a friend’s house, she read aloud a notification from Facebook informing her that at this time, on this date one year earlier, she had been at Bar X watching Band Q.  It made me think of how much we rely on our digital “external” memories to keep a running log of our lives, so as to not burden our brains with having to remember anything we do.  Yet, we can’t always control how those memories resurface or become connected within our apps.

The FB notification was seemingly only triggered by the date/time.  I find date/time is rarely something closely associated with a memory or experience.  Other elements, such as location, company, smells, ambiance, emotions, etc. are more likely to conjure up memories for me.  In fact, unless something really specific happened on a certain date (e.g. anniversary, birthday, large event), I won’t rely on a specific date as a reference point.

I notice a lot of apps trying to recreate memories for us based on time stamps, geotagging, and contextual clues gleaned from emoticons and tags.  This also means the information has to be available for the app to synthesize.  But how much information has to be captured to imitate how humans remember something?

As mentioned earlier, many of my triggers are based on non-tangible elements such as emotion and smell. Maybe if I put a little emoticon next to every post there could be a running log of my emotions. That way even my emotions could be translated into a readable code ready for analysis so I could be reminded every time I felt a certain way.  But is that useful or beneficial for me?

Would it be cool to know what you were thinking at a certain time/date?  Maybe…

For how long would that information be useful?

Personally, I would rather not preserve and record every moment of my waking life with images and digital logs, even if it was all done automatically.  It would be too much content to search through and manage.  Likely I wouldn’t even care about most of it.  I have a lot of silly thoughts and do some pretty dumb things I would rather not be reminded about.

Also, digitally preserving memories means they maintain the same interpretation every time.  When I preserve memories in other ways, I’m allowed to recreate, or imagine them in different ways.