Google Latitude: What's in it for me?

I was 25, my cousin 15. We decide to let him drive my car around the neighborhood on a weekend. Saturday morning my cousin is ready to take the wheel. I hand him the keys and get in on the passenger seat. He gets in the drivers seat. As soon as he is in, he adjusts the steering wheel tilt, all the mirrors, the seat height and back position, turns the ignition on and without missing a beat, realizing that the radio station that just turned on is not so desirable to his ears, extends his hands to tune his favorite radio station, when suddenly he sees my hand approaching his and preventing him from touching the radio. He has a look on his face that changes from surprised to questioning to perplexed to confused to uncertain, just as fast as all the settings in my car changed. Then I sound him my words of wisdom, "Just drive the car! Why are you changing everything? In a few minutes I will have to change it all back!" The look on his face did a quick second lap of all the emotions only to be interrupted by a verbal comment, "So?!".

I flash back to the time when I was about 15. We had just gotten cable TV at home, unstable, outages ever so often, and then when it started working, all the channels were mixed up. Zee TV, used to be on channel 5, is now on channel 26. ESPN, used to be on channel 6, is now on channel 9. Star Movies changed from channel 7 to channel 20, and Zee News, from 4 to 7. One cycle through the 30 channels on our TV & I know which channel plays what. A few days later, another outage, another service resumption, and another channel jumble, another cycle through 30 channels & I know exactly which channel plays what. But with every service disruption and resumption, my dad got more and more frustrated, because he had to "try" to re-memorize all the channels all over again. Every time I heard my dad complain "the *#$%&! cable guy jumbled the *#$%&! channels again", I had this look on my face that changed from surprised to questioning to perplexed to confused to uncertain, "So?!" After the first few months of inspiringly-creative-expletive-flinging, my dad found a solution - I was to manually set all the channels as per his taste. If the service disruption jumbled the channels, I will manually re-set all the channels back - every time! It seemed to work well for him. He now knew exactly what was playing where. He liked it that way.

Flash forward to my cousin's "So?!" comment, I realise I have become my dad - resistant to change!

The reason I remember these incidents from my life is because every time I am faced with something new that I need to adapt to, something that I have been comfortably doing for a while that needs to be done in a new way, I resist. Even if its something trivial like readjusting the settings of my car. I have this habit of getting in my car and starting to drive. Everything is set, everything is in place. Its a habit. I don't want anyone to force me to change my habit.

Sometimes, its a bigger challenge. Trying to figure out whether to adapt to technological advances that don't make immediate sense. I recently wrote about facebook and twitter. Today's topic is Google Latitude. Some time ago, my friend suggested me to start using it and, as per my habitual-sense, I found it absurd. Why would I want to let anyone know where I am all the time. Moreover, why would I want to know where everyone else is all the time! Here is a totally selfish, hence reasonable and logical and acceptable, explanation of why I adapted.

Ever so often, I bump into friends, at restuarants, shops, movie theaters, on the street, least expected places. It feels great to see a friend completely randomly. We generally bid farewell promising to meet soon again. And then sometimes we actually do, accidentally bump into each other again, soon! I also like to stop by at my friends places if I am in the neighborhood. Share a cup of tea, a few words, and on my way. Then there are days when I am some place all alone, couldn't plan anything with anyone, no random luck, looking eagerly for someone to show up from somewhere, wanting to call and check on everyone but not sure who to start with. A good opportunity for me to open Google Laitude on my phone to find out that a friend of mine is in the neighbourhood restaurant, just a few blocks away. I then pick up the phone and call him, but obviously he doesn't answer it, so I quickly post on his wall, "Hey I see you are in the neighborhood. Lets meet." Voila! We are sitting at the restaurant, discussing how technology makes such a thing, unthinkable till not too long ago, possible!
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To learn more about Google Laitude: www.google.com/latitude
To add me on Google Latitude: samsonkoletkar@google.com