A picture paints a thousand words….the fad for pads.

What does it say about society when in order to meet like minded people we are not using words, but sharing images?

Is that a realistic way to find things in common? Oh look! You took a photo of the same thing I did – well yes – we are both tourists visiting Coole park and standing in front of the Autograph Tree – albeit an hour apart.

Just suppose by some awful serendipitous conincidence, we also go on to snap images in Galway City, Salthill and up to Connemara? We could end up unintentionally paired for life!! Blame it on those Tour Guides!

Mind you there is a tradition of match making in Ireland- hey could be a new sideline – come to Ireland and follow this tour and find love on the journey lol

Back to the point of the post ( if there is one at all …) the predominance of smart phones with touch screens, even the proliferation of this years ‘must have’ gadget the tablets al again with touch screen navigation. Does this signify a move away from the traditional word? First came Txt spk (Thanks Jemima! ) removing random letters, now we just press a button on the camera to communicate??

Hmmm is this a genuine trend or as the title suggests a fad, which will see users of devices splitting into different camps revolving around their use of the gadgets.

From what I can see the tablet market is generally for content consumption – watching videos, listening to music, reading ‘books’ etc The mobile phones, although that label may not last – when does a phone become a tablet? Is it down to screen size? 7″ cut off point 10 ” cut off? Is it to do with the telephony service provider? The sheer volume of calls now on voip or Skype, not to mention Viber are challenging the network providers. How many free text? So what – I have WhatsApp on my handset.

So do I foresee dire futures for those engaging Blackberry Boys? Time will tell but in the mean time for those business suits that want to rattle out emails on the go but iwanting the status of the latest iPhone there is always your very own virtual personal assistant waiting in the App store…..