My smartphone
and me
by Jonathan Rubin
Seven years ago, I went to a presentation on ADD
(Attention Deficit Disorder)
given by a specialist from the
University of Washington. This
man had an MD and a PhD, and
seemed in every way the genius
doctor. He pulled a small rectangular object out of his pocket and
told our group that he himself
had ADD and that he was completely lost without this gadget.
It took me a couple of seconds
to figure out that it was a
relatively new item called a
Personal Data Assistant
(PDA). (You may recall the
first generation, called the
Palm Pilot. Users had to tap
A little hand-held
technology makes up
for many MS losses.
on their screens with little metal
styluses.) Today’s smartphones
perform many of the functions of
these early devices, with miniature keyboards or touch screens.
The doctor went on to
explain that his ADD prevented
him from organizing his
meetings, his contacts,
and even his thoughts, without
some help. His PDA gave him
the structure he needed. Each
evening, his wife would help
him organize his calendar on his
home computer, and then synch
it with his device. At the time,
I had been living with MS for
about 12 years and I was finding
it harder and harder to organize
my thoughts, my schedule, my
work and my life. I soon bought
my own PDA.
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