IM riff on the IT overload.

Holman, Debra K.

IM riff on the IT overload

 I am ...
 a Star Trek-loving
 Tron-remembering
 Matrix-following
 member of Gen X
 who has known Big Blue, TI, Commodore, and Apple
 and vividly recalls the first time
 I ever sat at a Mac
 and opened a
 window.

 I miss
 Word Perfect.
 I use MS Word.
 I think EndNote is the best thing
 since the invention
 of word processing
 itself.

 I have scanned
 card catalogs,
 library databases,
 gophers,
 search engines,
 and
 Google
 and yet still know when
 to visit with a
 reference librarian.

 Most days
 I'm on my
 iPod, Palm Treo, a Mac, and a Dell.
 I run Snow Leopard, XP, and Vista.
 I follow message boards,
 review FAQs,
 maintain listservs,
 blog, chat, text, and tweet.
 You won't find me on MySpace,
 but I am on Facebook and Flickr.

 I am not IT--in spite of what you think--
 so don't IM me.
 I'm downloading a podcast
 and headed off-grid
 just to hear myself think. *

* With inspirational acknowledgement to George Carlin and his standup routine on A Modern Man, A Man for the Millennium.

DEBRA K. HOLMAN

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO

The author may be contacted at kaye.holman@unco.edu.