Traveling with Technology

I just got back from the annual Eastern Communication Conference in Pittsburgh. As I sat in the airport waiting to come home, I started thinking about the amount of technology I was carrying with me. I had a cell phone, an MP3 player and a laptop. I called home from the airport on the cell phone. I used the laptop to look at my email using the free wireless network in the airport. And I listened to music on my MP3 player both in the airport and on the plane.

I used to travel a lot for business–in fact, for one year in the late 1980s, I traveled to Parkersburg, West Virginia from Western Massachusetts nearly every week.  At that time, the only thing I would carry with me was a book. Very low-tech.  Once I left for the airport, I was out of touch with my office. And that was actually ok. Everyone survived. Our work got done on time.  I’m not sure that it’s an advance to be so connected all the time.