My good friend Tim Kourdi brought these graphs to my attention, recently. They show how much time we spend online on our mobile phones, and convey two key messages: We are now spending more than double the time online on our phones than we did 4 years ago; Younger segments spend around seven times more time … Continue reading Mobile phone usage – perceptions v reality
Category: Personal
June 2017 round-up
It’s summer and I am very much enjoying the long ‘days’. Yay. And the GCSEs are over. Double yay. This month, I interviewed for, and was appointed to, the position of leader of the Marketing division at my Business School (i.e., head of department). Plus, at the end of the month, I learned that … Continue reading June 2017 round-up
Things I am loving lately #1
A collection of random things that I am enjoying lately, and that I really wanted to tell you about, but which, individually, are not enough for a blog post. 1. Working outdoors The weather has been gorgeous, and the days are ‘long’ (yeah, yeah, I know that they are still the same length – … Continue reading Things I am loving lately #1
May 2017 round-up
My heart broke twice, this month: when I woke up to news of the attack targeting children and young people at Ariana Grande’s concert; and when I learned that some dear friends are facing a very difficult challenge. Both these news immediately put my personal ‘problems’ into perspective (swiftly downgrading them to mere inconveniences), … Continue reading May 2017 round-up
Day in the Life of an Academic #7: exams and viva
Got up at 6 am, as usual. However, instead, of squeezing in a bit of writing, as I usually do, I squeezed in a bit of marking. You see, I am in the middle of exam marking season, and I need to go through this particular pile and pass it on for second marking by tomorrow. … Continue reading Day in the Life of an Academic #7: exams and viva
Fake missing persons appeals
After the Manchester terror attack, there were some amazing displays of humanity, online and offline. But there was also a phenomenon that is, at the very least, bizarre, if not just plain cruel: people tweeting fake appeals for missing ones. For instance, someone used the image of a girl who had been murdered, in a … Continue reading Fake missing persons appeals
April 2017 round-up
This was a challenging month – school holidays for the kids, exam revisions for the teen, a house move for the family, and some unexpected marking, among other things. So, in this monthly round-up, I am trying to be kind with myself about my limited productivity... but I must make up for it, in the … Continue reading April 2017 round-up
March 2017 round-up
A small number of people have told me that they appreciate reading these monthly reports, and some have even adopted a similar practice – most recently, Silvia Tavares, who is an architect and urbanist based at James Cook University, Australia. I have been writing this type of report, in one form or another, since my … Continue reading March 2017 round-up
How Alexa got its name
I always assumed that the name for Amazon’s smart voice assistant, Alexa, was some sort of nod to the (female) name Alexandra. But I was wrong. The creator of Alexa, Brewster Kahle, revealed how he came up with that name, in an interview with Kara Swisher for the Decode Recode podcast, which you can listen … Continue reading How Alexa got its name
February 2017 round-up
I love February. It is my birthday month, and it is the month when it gets visibly lighter early in the morning. It is so nice to wake up to a not-completely-dark sky, isn't it? It makes me happy. Below, my highlights for February. Researching I made some … Continue reading February 2017 round-up
