technology frustration

One of my largest frustrations with technology is figuring out how to actually take advantage of new technologies to improve my daily life. Lots of technology advances, such as what bill gates and steve jobs recently discussed in their keynote addresses sound good, but the real issue is how to actually take advantage of the features provided.

Rss feeds and podcasts, for example, have been around for a long time. They are aggregators and one advantage they provide is to eleminate the need to go to many sites individually and open/download files. One uses this feature effectively only after one has developed the habit of getting information/news from online sources. If your primary news source is tv or newspapers, then rss feeds provide little benefit. On the other hand, if your main news sources is the internet, then rss feeds can be a real boon. Since most persons start by recieving news from old style media providers (i.e. tv, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc.) before they can realize the advantages afforded by rss feeds and podcasts), they must first develop the habit of getting news from online sources. Also these online sources must provide rss feeds, thus the user needs to develop a preference for on-line news sources that provide rss/podcast capabilities.

Thus once the infrastructure has developed, the software/hardware base has become available, and the needed new habits and preferences have become instilled in the user, then the potential benefits can become reality for the user.