One of the more recent innovations that I enjoy is that of digital personal assistants. I’m talking here about the application service, not the original PDA bricks from the 90’s, I could never afford one of those. The technology has been available on various smart devices and mobile phones going back some 6 years I believe, and I learned of its existence almost at the point of inception. I did drag my feet somewhat on adopting and accepting the technology mainly as I did not perceive any shortcoming in the way that I arranged my schedule and communicated availability to friends and colleagues. As time passed, I figured that I would give it a try as I could at least use it to verbally record a grocery list I thought. At this point in time however, I would say I that I have definitely reached the point of confirmation. I use the service daily to schedule my meetings, alert me to upcoming events, and inform others that are involved in the activity so that I’m sure they are on the same page with me. I could go back to the old manual way of doing things, but I would not do so willingly.

As far as my adoption of the service, I would think that I rate as a late adopter. I really didn’t grasp all of the advantages and fully start utilizing its potential until roughly 2019, a full 3 years after it was made available. Earlier in life I would adapt to technological advancements much more rapidly however. I believe that I was possibly the first person in Lakeland, FL to own a Minidisc player. I touted it as the medium that would put an end to scratched CDs and completely felt that we would never need to move past that music format. I wouldn’t fall into the innovator category I don’t believe, but I was at least an early adopter. I even installed a Minidisc deck in my 1973 Camaro, there’s a image for you… I think age has a lot to do with one’s adoption rate of technology, especially in this day and age where the next advancement that you didn’t know you needed is likely right around the corner. I’m still waiting on a viable hoverboard, but at 40 I would probably break my neck on one.