(This is the Online column, written for The Southland Times)
There’s more to technology than just gaming.
Maybe I’m turning into a grumpy old woman, but I just can’t get excited about all the latest announcements and unveilings at E3.
Sure, the various flavours of gamers are all a-flutter about PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but these days you’re more likely to find me doing gentle battle with Mah Jong on my iPad that mowing down nasties in a first-person shooter. Although, it is worth noting that the new PlayStation should be a tad cheaper than the Xbox.
Just in case you don’t know, E3 (full title the Electronic Entertainment Expo) is an annual trade fair for the computer and video game industry. It used to be for all things related to electronic entertainment but now seems to focus on the gaming, a hugely popular part of the electronic entertainment market.
Apple, meanwhile, continues to do its own thing, holding its own conference at the same time. We don’t want to go sullying our pretty Apple products with all those common as muck other products now, do we?
Anyway, it seems the software behind everyone’s favourite phone is in for a wee facelift, with the most “revolutionary re-design of its operating system since the iPhone was introduced in 2007″.
It’s a brave move but Apple is known for its brave moves and its unwillingness to follow trends so let’s hope it pays off for the company.
Although, instead of a fancy-schmancy new look for the operating system, I reckon a social media idiot filter would be a good move. Facebook has its good points but there are some people out there who just don’t know how to behave on a public social network. During the past few weeks, I’ve seen several alleged adults have very public meltdowns, very public slanging matches with their own family members and very public meltdowns and equally public slanging matches with their own family members.
Then there are the young’uns proclaiming their undying love for someone they’ve never actually met in the flesh or telling all and sundry the gory details of their romance of the century.
And don’t get me started on the drama queens who update their status with comments about how ugly they are in the hopes of prompting a flurry of “oh no, you’re beautiful” comments from all their friends (a word I use loosely when it comes to Facebook).
For those who are adults and still getting up to these antics: get a grip, you should know better by now. And for those of a younger persuasion: trust me, if you do ever actually grow up, one day you will be embarrassed by your online antics.
I’m not saying I didn’t do stupid things when I was a teenager, that’s what teenagers are meant to do. However, I embarrassed myself in front of (real) friends and family only. For the teenagers of today, living their lives so openly online, those adolescent acts of stupidity might come back to haunt them over and over again for years to come.