I started this blog more than 4 years ago with the idea of exploring ways information technologies shape how I live my daily life. Sometimes that influence is inescapable and pervasive. That’s the ubiquitous part. Sometimes the influence is small and subtle. That’s the quotidian. The reality, of course, has been a bit of both. Information technologies have become the scaffolding of my daily life.

This blog has covered a lot of other ground along the way. I’ve written about the loss of someone I loved very much. I’ve written about parenting. I’ve shared out some of my fictional fare from time to time.

I am still thinking about the technologies, trying to sort out whether they are on the whole, for me, more helpful or more harmful. I’ve felt quite a bit of both. There is, I’ve noticed, a kind of malaise settling in. I think of it as information sickness. I am using Facebook and Twitter a bit less that I used to. My Feedly account has 9 days worth of unread blog posts, a situation akin to a briar patch full of juicy berries laced through with prickly thorns. I am reading more on paper again, though I remain a big advocate of eBooks.

The thing I want to say for now is that I have come to feel like the tools I once eagerly adopted to make my life easier, better and more productive have coopted a bit of my life and taken something important. It is, of course, ridiculous to blame the tools. The tools are value neutral. I am working with finding a new relationship with my tools. Which is to say, I still believe the tools can make my life easier, better and more productive. But I need to decide: “easier and better how?” and “more productive for what?”