Farewell trusty laptop?

Ok, I’m in the middle (hopefully closer to the end), of a bout of laryngitis- so it’s blog central right now as I’m not able to do much else. Anyway, as I sit in bed I’m surrounded by ‘must have’ technology- laptop on my knee, iPod in my ear and phone within reach. Take one of these out of the equation and I’d probably develop a slight separation anxiety, and I’m constantly checking each of them making sure they are charged, ready to go.
I recently caught up with a friend who has returned from a lovely European vaction and during the manadatory photo showing, I was suitably wooed by a sexy new foreigner, soon to be moving to Australia- it was love at first sight. Sadly, it wasn’t a gorgeous Italian man….but it was dark and handsome.
Of course, I’m talking about the new and very sleek iPhone. The entirity of my friend’s photo collection from his holiday was stored on this device, on top of his music library (vast is an understatement), phone contacts as well as internet access. This one palm sized device could soon make my gorgeous little laptop redundant! The most popular catch phrase we can attach to this is “technological convergence”, and I suppose to another extent “media convergence”.
One step at a time, let’s start with technological convergence, pretty self-explanatory here. Basically the iPhone is combining the best elements from the telephone, MP3 players, cameras and
computers, a 4-in-1 jackpot of convienence.
I cannot wait until i can get my hands on this lovely piece of equipment, hopefully after it drops in cost a little, and work my way around all of its handy features. It worries me however, that eventually technologically converged communication devices will become and the norm, and people like my mother will struggle to come to terms with so many facilities in one- lets be honest, she’s only just learnt how to text message and email, mostly because she was so scared of breaking whatever she was trying to use.
Technological incompetence can occur as consequence of fear, often referred to ‘technophobia’ and can be identified particularly in an older demographic, where familiar technology is upgraded, via technological determinism, and becomes the unfamiliar. Fear then sets in as the technophobe does not want to break or damage the new technology. A divide then occurs between generations as the new becomes familiar to the younger generation, the older generation becomes separated.
Analysts such as Lee & Tan see this as a “socio-digital divide”, where inequalities in use, access and knowledge of a technology limits the means in which generation can communicate. This leads to the segregation between those who can use technology( the children) and those who can’t (the parents), often resulting in older members of the household finding themselves increasingly alienated.
Socially this can lead to a break down of communication between generations, however, I’m sure when I build enough patience, I’ll be able to host a tutorial for my parents on using Facebook, or Messenger. On the other hand, this socio-digital divide might just be there for a reason- do I really want my parents to be able to montior me as a young adult through my digital dirt tracks?! Daily phone calls and messages will suffice for now…