I can’t speak for everyone (obviously), but there are days I almost forget how reliant I am on technology. Everything I do these days… well, almost everything… is touched by tech. I write my books on a computer, I upload my drafts to Dropbox, I post updates on my website, I enjoy recreational video games (ha, what a formal way of describing my current journey through Assassin’s Creed: Origins!)… even the music I listen to is entirely digital these days.
None of this is a complaint… except when it doesn’t work. And it happens… the router stops working, the internet hiccups and boots me off, one of the many services I need and use to write and advertise decides to just not work… and then I am suddenly faced with the web of interlaced tech that keeps my usual day-to-day… well, “usual.”
I order my books for my friendly local bookstore over the internet. I sell my own books through the behemoth that is Amazon. I used to use social media to talk about my work… these days I don’t do that any more (and, I’ll be honest, I kinda miss it).
Speaking of missing social media: I’m currently reading The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt, and I’m really enjoying it! I like Pratt’s writing style, and I thoroughly enjoyed 2 out of 3 of his Twilight Imperium books (one was fine, but it was weaker and too Deus Ex Machina for my personal tastes). In this book the protagonists awaken a woman who has been in cryosleep for about 500 years, and she worries that she can’t hug people any more because “What if a plague or disease made hugging a faux pas?”
He wrote the book in 2017. What did he know that we didn’t…?
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!