A digital Life - a laptop computer and the online lifestyle - Column

My left arm is not really longer than my right arm; it just feels that way because my laptop computer and its peripherals seem to have stretched it over the years. I take the computer everywhere because my entire professional and personal lives have been digitized, and all the information I need to conduct them is stored inside the laptop.

Every article I've written in the past eight years is in the computer. Every memo I've written ten in the last five years is in the computer. All important electronic mail (e-mail), expense reports, budget projections, speeches, electronic slide shows and lists of sources are in the computer. My daily calendar, meeting schedule and to-do list are in the computer. I even have the details of almost every phone call I've made since 1989 - they're in the computer.

On a personal level, the computer has a list of all pertinent birthdays, anniversaries and other important remembrances. My finances are in the computer, including my tax returns for the past five years, and so are the mailing lists for a couple of organizations to which I belong.

The only things that I don't keep stored on the computer are my credit card numbers and the personal identification number for my automated teller machine card. The computer in my head keeps track of those. (I also have most important files encrypted and password protected.)

Being wired, plugged in, on-line, or whatever is the current buzzword for living one's life on the digitized edge has its pluses and minuses. If I lose my laptop, I will cease to exist (a slight exaggeration, but close enough to the truth to cause me to take extra care).

A big advantage to using a computer as part of my professional life is that it gives me an opportunity to work anywhere. The disadvantage, of course, is that traveling does not suspend office activities. Before I got wired, I could go on a business trip and hear from the office only if there was an emergency - and then only by telephone. Now, if a colleague gets some brilliant idea at 2 a.m., she can fire off e-mail, fully confident that I'll get it first thing in the morning, no matter where I am.

But, as I have said, all that technology (e-mail, voice mail and fax) allows me to work anywhere, and working an here often means spending more time with my family. My youngest is prone to ear infections, and it's now easy for me to stay at home with her or take her to the doctor in the middle of the day. I once spent a week at home while she got over the flu. As she rested, I continued to work. My colleagues assumed I was in the office. About 10 minutes after I got off the phone with a co-worker, he voice-mailed: "Boy, do you move fast! I came down to your office the minute I hung up, and you're gone already." When I called him back and said that I hadn't been in the office all week, he was astounded.

If I need to do research for an article, the first place I look is on line. Not only can I find information faster than going to the library, but the chances are that it will be more up-to-date than the printed version. For example, I wanted to find out how many African Americans owned computers. I had the 1990 printed version of the census, but when I dialed into the Census Bureau through the Internet, I found updated information from a 1993 special census. (Incidentally, of the 23 million home computers in the United States, about 5 million are in the homes of African Americans.)

I'm on-line for both business and pleasure. The biggest change in my digital life is connecting with others on line. Attaching a modem to a computer is a free ticket to the world. That is not hyperbole. There are dozens of people, to whom I "type" regularly, whom I would not have met had I not been on-line.

My youngest child is picking up my digital lifestyle, When she was 4 - she's now 7 - we were driving to visit relatives. We came to a stoplight."Dad, why is there a cursor on the stoplight?" she asked. it took me a moment to realize that the left arrow on the traffic signal looked like the arrow pointer on my computer. I have created a digital daughter.

Stephen C. Miller is the assistant to the technology, editor at the New York Times. He writes frequently about the effects of computers on society.

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