How software and technology has affected my life - Part I

When I was a lad. Alright. 30 years ago I used to stay up late on a Saturday night so I could watch 'Match of the Day' As I remember it was on after 'Hammer House of Horror' I used to watch it in the TV room.

It was my footy/tv combo highlight of the week.

Some years later as my interest in football began to align itself (like most brits) to fanatical religious levels. I remember cycling over two miles to my grandad's house and play cribbage. We used to play for a few hours and in the background we have the text services on.

"Fifteen two, fiffteen four and a pair makes - GOOOAALLLLLLLLLLL - Yes, Oh, sorry and a pair makes 6." The Brazilian goal was of course my beloved Tottenham Hotspurs scoring a goal. I'd then sit there glued to the television for the next hour or so waiting patiently as page 303 as it was then on Ceefax refreshed itself. You could press hold and then hold again to cancel the hold and the page counter would rush around. I don't think it actually made a difference to the amount of time taken but at least you felt like it was doing something. A modern comparison would be progress bar on your internet browser status bar.

As I got a little older we started to get more regular live games on TV. We had the Big Match on a Sunday with Brian Moore. Years later along came Rupert Murdock and Sky and if you are a subscriber (which I am) then you have football and football news on tap.

All this time I have remained a staunched spurs supporter. I will watch all their games live. I will adjust work starting times for the day (remember I live on the other side of the world). I often stay up all night to watch my team. http://www.bbc.co.uk.sport/ is my default IE page.

Then along came the internet. I can now search for spurs' greatest goals and invariably someone has put up some illegal copyrighted material from their video/dvd/blueray collection recorded to an internet format via their new HD compatiable handheld camera.

I guess we truly are in the information age.

However, with all these positives there is always a negative. In my case it is fantasy football.

Firstly. I can never seperate real world footy from my fantasy teams. Therefore, every year I ignore the likes of Lampard and Gerrard for 3 Spurs players I hope will finally gel and do something for me. I am sure things will be no different this year.

The real change for me is not that I have more footy to watch, it is how I watch it and interact with it. I used to cheer on my team, berate the opposition and with a bit of luck not offend my neighbours in the process. Now I have to remember who is and isn't in my fantasy team, hope for certain players to score and if the score is the same as one of my sports predictions, pray for no more goals, even if my team is losing.

And we call technology progress.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.