Techie World
I am a techie. I had a Walkman in high school.

I had my own Incredible Hulk (read: green monitor) XT computer in 1989.

I installed a car Discman when I had my first car after college. All my cars, thereafter, had equalizers, as I wanted my music louder, with matching speakers to boot. Hoping to catch my favorite Ushio shop still open at 6PM, I would even rush to Banawe from work, just to have more powerful speakers installed in my car.

I carried around a Pocketbell pager in the early 90s when it wasn't a common thing to own.

I had a humongous cellphone incapable of sending text messages, even before others had cellphones.

My first Palm Pilot PDA in 1998 had, again, a green monitor. It didn't even have the Documents to Go feature.

Among the things in my bag which I bring with me everyday are my cellphone, Palm, and iPod.

I'm a techie, but I'm no techie snob. Really, I'm not. I even sometimes admit to being techno-challenged (I call it "technobobo")!

But I can't stand this (and can't understand why) -- some people maintain e-mail addresses, but don't even open their mailbox. Why bother having one?

I don't "require" you to be a techie. I won't look down on you if you don't have an e-mail address. Honest, I won't. But for Pete's sake, use your e-mail if you have an e-mail address. Nothing's more frustrating than sending e-mail messages to those who don't actually bother checking their mailboxes. What's up with that?!

In this day and age, having and maintaining an e-mail address is not "for show". It's not a status symbol, for crying out loud. It's not "consumerism". It's a necessity. Communication is always important! If you have e-mail, use it. If you maintain a mailbox, check your mail everyday. My husband and I check our e-mailboxes several times a day. It's not an obsession -- it's become a habit.

In my last job in Manila, one of the people reporting to me didn't have a cellphone. I thought she came from another planet! In our line of work (Media/advertising), a cellphone is vital. It's a given, a no-brainer. You are on call almost 24/7 by Clients, Account Management, and Media AEs (Account Executives). Advertising in Manila is a dog-eat-dog world -- fast-paced, competitive, and stressful. It is not unusual to get a call from Client or Accounts, saying they want to run a print ad the day before the newspaper runs. You can expect to cancel a print ad the day before the newspaper runs, too. Weekends are not spared! Working in that kind of "I-need-it-yesterday" environment requires you to be flexible and accessible, thus, the all-important cellphone. If you're not accessible, you're out of the game. More importantly, you cost your Agency.

In the end, my assistant got a cellphone -- an unreliable one, at that. She was on prepaid, so you could hardly expect her to get in touch with you, either. Sigh.

In Manila, everyone has a cellphone. Even sidewalk vendors do! My maids send me text messages all the way to the US. I sometimes send them money so they can load up some more. Tee hee hee.

Which brings us back to e-mail -- if you have e-mail, check your mailbox everyday. Use it, or lose it. You don't live in the dark ages, do you?