Are PDAs a help or a hindrance?

Everyone said technology would make our lives easier.
Computers filled with vast amounts of memory would store
large files and tons of information. Telephones connected us
in ways we never could've imagined. Cell phones came along
and connected us even further, adding mobility and
multitasking to the equation. The Internet gave us news
sites, blogs and online libraries to make up-to-date stories
and reliable reference materials available at the click of
a mouse button.

While all of the above is generally true, sometimes we find
ourselves contemplating the downside to each of these
aspects. After a hefty memory upgrade, our computers can
still run as slowly as ever. Multitasking with a cell phone,
along with being difficult to do, can be potentially
dangerous if it's done in the car. A search on the Internet
for some decent information can lead to a bunch of junk Web
sites that are a decade too old.

One piece of technology that suffers from this pull between
pros and cons is the personal digital assistant, or PDA. When
PDAs were first introduced to the market in the mid-'90s,
their operating systems were simple, using programs that kept
calendar appointments, phone numbers and addresses, but
little more. Now, the increasing popularity of smartphones,
which are essentially sophisticated phones with PDA
capabilities, we now have personal, convenient handheld
devices that can perform the majority of our daily tasks and
provide us with entertainment along the way.

But are PDAs all they're cracked up to be? Do they improve
our lives, saving us time and effort? Or do they simply make
things more complicated and cause unwarranted frustration?

PDAs: A Benefit or an "Outsourcing"?

Some of us only need a pen and a piece of paper to remember
upcoming appointments, important dates and passwords.
A calendar hung up on the wall with notes, a few circles and
some X marks is the single material object necessary to
maintain an organized life.

For others, it isn't so easy, and that's where personal
digital assistants come in and offer their best and most
obvious benefit. At their most basic, PDAs are virtual
calendars, much like the ones found in Microsoft Outlook. Any
day, week or month of the calendar year can be accessed, and
a PDA owner can enter in text for reminders. When the
important event comes along, an alarm or vibration will
notify the user of its arrival, so things like dentist
appointments or incoming shipments won't be forgotten.

PDAs also can be used to store the phone numbers and
addresses of family, friends and work contacts. Newer models
also have wireless Internet and e-mail access, so if you're
on the run and happen to be in a Wi-Fi hot spot, you're just
a few clicks from the information you need. If you own
a smartphone, your PDA doubles as a cell phone, and you can
perform almost any task with ease. In general, PDAs are also
simple to navigate. All PDAs use touch screen LCDs (liquid
crystal displays) that either respond to a stylus or your
finger.

PDAs are generally geared toward businesses, where meetings,
appointments and deadlines are a part of the work life. The
ability to set up reminders before meetings and keep
a digital rolodex of important contacts can increase people's
productivity while keeping paper waste to a minimum. Many
companies will buy PDAs in bulk and provide employees with
them, to help employees communicate if they come with cell
phone capabilities -- quick text messages can save people
several precious minutes. PDAs have even proved helpful to
health care providers -- doctors, nurses and pharmacists use
them extensively to gather medical information and
communicate easier in order to save valuable time.

But what about complaints about PDA use? Some argue that all
this time-saving only creates more things for us to do --
instead of using that free time for leisure activities and
spending time with families and friends, we find ways to cram
even more tasks, either large or small, into our schedules.
Some PDA users are left juggling far too many parts of their
life on a tiny electronic device, and instead of saving time
they're just left stressing out.

The ease of storing information has also done a number on our
memories. For example, David Brooks for The New York Times
believes we've "outsourced" our memories to electronics like
GPS devices, cell phones and, yes, PDAs. According to Brooks,
we rely too often on storing personal data like phone
numbers, addresses and passwords into electronics. Before
PDAs and cell phones, people memorized many phone numbers
because they were forced to type them in manually -- now,
technology does the work for us, and our memories suffer.