This is a column I wrote for a college newspaper.
Technology is constantly changing. Technology companies are constantly adding new features to their products, but they usually only tout the really exciting ones in their advertising. Many times the instructions for how to use these features is buried in a thick manual or vaguely depicted in a small pamphlet. To use each feature to it’s fullest requires an understanding which is best learned through playing around.
Unfamiliar technology can be scary, but familiarity is gained through exposure, the more someone uses a gadget or a program the more they will understand how it works. However, this is only helps that person if they try something new. Without experimenting or playing around with different features there is no way to learn how to use them (short of reading a manual.)
A similar example can be made for any other activity. To become better at a sport an athlete needs to practice and play that sport. Practice is required to become a better instrumentalist. Homework assignments are given so that students can gain a better understanding of the concepts via repetition.
One thing that scares people with respect to technology is the concept of lost data. Even though horror stories are told of people who lost everything on their computer, there are many methods of saving data or backing up data before playing with it and potentially destroying it.
To give a personal example, I do quite a bit of work with photos in different image editing programs. If I am going to work on an image and I am not sure what I need to do to the image, I’ll often duplicate the image and work on a copy rather than the original. This allows me to completely mutilate the image, and still be able to start over. If I am working with layers in Photoshop, I’ll often duplicate the layer before making any huge changes as an extra precaution.
The important thing to realize is that the world of technology is constantly changing and there are a lot of programs which are readily available and carry a huge potential for creation or automation, but require some time to get use too. It is not that they are hard to use, it is just that they require some playing around first. So take some time to play around.
