Those were the days

On Friday, we had a very informative workshop about our digital platform and how we can enhance the amount of hits we get on our various sites.

Digital media is certainly taking over our lives, but fortunately, it is in a good way.

I remember a time when we had to roll out own films, that was before digital cameras. We had a black bag where you had to put scissors, the roll of film, sellotape and the film canister in and blindly roll the film because it was imperative that no light enters the bag. If we did not do it right, the spool will not move inside your camera and all the photographs were on one frame. It happened to me often and I remember having to please explain myself out of the unfortunate circumstances so many times.

Some readers might also remember that the majority of our pages were printed in black and white and only one or two pages were allowed to have colour. We tried to use the colour pages for the nicer photographs and social events.

We also had only one dial-up modem for the newsroom and we could only use it once or twice a day to check for emails and so forth. Not every journalist had their own computer either and we had to take turns using the computers.

The dial-up system did not always work so well due to the amount of traffic on internet and the journalists were often very frustrated, especially if we are on deadline and there is an urgent message from someone.

We also had to retype numerous faxes on a daily basis since that was the way people communicated then. We attended almost every single appointment, from baby competitions to Mr and Miss High School pageants. Life seemed so much easier then.

Nowadays most schools send their articles to us, including photos. We copy and paste letters that arrive via email to an individual’s computer. Each person has access to internet and we use digital cameras.

Somehow, you would think that we have more time on our hands since the digital era has arrived, but alas, although life is simpler and easier now, time is now a luxury.

I am sure everyone will agree that the more we move into a digital enhanced life, the less time we have.