Heads Up Midlife Entrepreneurs! Are you using technology as a TOOL?

Hi All!

I hope that you are all having a great holiday season!  As we ponder the end of one decade upon us and the start another, it is a good time to reflect on how technology has changed so tremendously in the last decade…..AND to reflect on the opportunities it provides us as we approach the beginning of another.

I believe that technology changes only give we entrepreneurs even MORE great tools to expand our reach to customers, collaborators as well as friends and family.

Think about it…a decade ago, who had a GPS?  Thumb drives for data storage and transfer had JUST been created, social media did not exist, websites were only webspaces created by technies….and the list goes on.

This has  certainly been a decade of "power to the people"!  We, the non-technological masses have lots of wonderful technology available to to us which is easy to use by almost anyone.

There are 2 issues however that are critical to address as we, the non-technie midlife entrepreneurs embark on our new year.

1) How can we use technology simply so that it is useful to us but not overwhelming?

2) How can spend the RIGHT AMOUNT of time on the web using this wonderful technology?

I will be commenting on these 2 issues over upcoming weeks and will offer some tools and references to attack these 2 key issues.

My first comment is about using the right amount of time.

I saw a piece on Good Morning America this morning about Facebook addiction by teenagers.  What is pertinant for us, midlife entrepreneurs is the discussion about technology that took place during this discussion.

The point that the expert made is that WE CAN BECOME ADDICTED TO ANYTHING.

The web, Facebook, blogs, television, telephones, Twitter, etc…..are ALL tools.  We can become addicted to overusing them just as we could become addicted to food, gambling and other traditional vices.

So, as we live the human experience, it is important to remember these tools are just that, TOOLS.

It is our responsibility as intelligent human beings to figure out how best to use them for each of us and get the benefit that is appropriate.   I get so tired of hearing people in midlife cutting down Facebook and other tools because they have the perception of people wasting hours using this assumed to be useless tool.

These are wonderful tools….I wish more midlifers were open to them as such and learn to use them in a way to enhance the human experience instead of assuming they are a "time waste"?

The video for GMA is available online…as well as some tips from the expert on the program about creating balance in life and using these tools in moderation….good for teens and good for the rest of us also!! Here is the link!

I know that many of you are using web tools…please comment if you like and feel free to use these thoughts to spur on open thoughts about social media with your friends and business cohorts!

Barb