How Technology Has Changed The Way I Work and Parent

Thanks to advances in technology, life as a freelance writer is a little less work than it was ten years ago.  Back in the early 2000′s, researching and writing a story would go something like this:

1. Turn computer on, turn monitor on, unplug phone line and hook up modem, then go downstairs to make a coffee to give it time to warm up. (15 minutes)
2. Log onto AOL to check e-mail. Feel a tinge of excitement when familiar voice advises “You’ve got mail.” Go through 697 spam messages, then fish out a legit message from an editor requesting a story on The Mating Habits of Chinchillas. (30 minutes)
3. Play Free Cell for ten minutes and fantasize about what a wonderful mother you’ll be someday. (15 minutes)
4. Pull out Yellow Pages and jot down number of three chinchillas farms. Leave messages for each one, thanking your lucky stars you live in a world where technology such as voice mail exists. Pull out three different sets of encyclopedias and glean as much usable information as possible from the two-page spread of each book. (2 hours)
5. Visit each chinchilla farm, toting camera, note pad and two pens (just in case one dries out). Congratulate yourself for coinciding visit with chinchillas’ mating season. Take educational photos, conduct your interviews s-l-o-w-l-y so your pen can keep up with the info, then drop film off at 48-hour photo mat before picking up printer ink, stamps, and three-ringed lined paper. Return home and write out first draft. (5 hours)
6. After editing and perfecting the copy, print out. Pick up pictures and slip into yellow manilla envelope with article and invoice a mere four days after the original request was e-mailed. Go to mailbox and send. (2 hours)

Total man hours: 9 hours, 45 minutes.

Luckily the advent of today’s technology has really sped up the process:

1. Crack open laptop and remind yourself that you really should turn the damn thing off occasionally. (5 seconds)
2. Check Facebook, Twitter, favourite blogs, People, TMZ, and your own blog stats. Comment randomly and wittily. (2 hours)
3. Get annoyed when e-mail asking for Mating Habits of Chinchillas interrupts your Bejeweled Blitz game. (5 seconds)
4. Check Facebook, Twitter, favourite blogs, People, TMZ, and your own blog stats. Comment randomly and wittily. (2 hours)
5. Check on son. (1 minute)
6. Remember you have two children. Check on other son. (1 minute)
7. Call friend on phone and discuss how difficult parenting can be. Conversation inspires idea for hilarious blog update. (1 hour)
8. Update blog, link to Twitter and Facebook and wait for the accolades to come pouring in. (2 hours)
9. Get second e-mail from editor asking for Chinchilla thing. Shit—thought I’d done that. (5 seconds)
10. Reluctantly break away from bantering with B-list celebrity on Twitter, Google Chinchilla mating habits, and blanch at racy images. Search again, this time not forgetting to put in the word "Chinchilla." Fire out article, include links to online pictures, and send to editor. (20 minutes)
11. Return to Twitter, wondering how the heck anybody got anything done before social media existed. (5 seconds)

Total man hours: 7 hours, 22 minutes.