Good news on the mobility front – Business Week is running an article on laptops now outselling desktops. This minimalist is all for mobility – if you depend on technology to keep your life organized, there’s simply no reason to have your computer tied to a wall outlet under your desk, and you certainly don’t want the hassle of maintaining a laptop, desktop, PDA, cellphone, etc. As full laptops shrink further, they will hopefully become our main devices – maybe tablets, maybe more PDA-like, maybe just really tiny laptops. Whatever the outcome, shifting the balance to laptops rather than desktops will drive down prices and increase innovation. Plus, it looks like you’ll be able to read The Minimalist on that laptop using WiFi while flying United Airlines.
But can addiction to being connected cause problems? Of course – everything can cause problems if abused. Just because you can be connected all the time and check email a zillion times each day doesn’t mean you should. The great promise of technology is to simplify our lives, which can’t happen if it becomes a tool for others to abuse our time. Usually, this is because having the technology sets an expectation that we’ll be more responsive and always available. That’s a bad deal for any minimalist – use technology that helps you, not technology that lets others abuse you.