The last week or so the “10 year challenge” has been all over facebook. I wasn’t all that interested in participating, but after a few days I decided to look back at my profile pictures from my earliest moments on Facebook back in 2007. What I found made me laugh.

My first profile pic was an image I’d completely forgotten I’d made. It’s a [bad] composite shot of me in front of our church stained-glass, holding a number of tech items I’d been using at the time. In my right hand is a Panasonic Mini-DV camcorder, in my left hand is a Greek New Testament ¹, around my neck is an iRiver MP3 player which I used for sermon recording ², and on my head was a USB headset I’d been using for podcasting back in 2007 ³. If I really wanted to go with the tech theme, I probably could have replaced the Greek New Testament with the Greek New Testament displayed on my iPaq ⁴. Other than the absence of my iPaq and my Linux Laptop, what’s in that image represented my “cool gadgets” of the 2007 era.

How quickly things changed from that image. In early 2008 I ditched my iPaq for an iPod Touch, and I exchanged my Linux Laptop for an Apple MacBook. My Mini-DV camcorder held on for another year or so ⁵, but when I got my first smart phone in 2009 it began its slow fade into obscurity. I even created a franken-cable so I could use my iPod Touch as my sermon recorder. I’ve not used a paper Bible in years.

Things shifted even more in 2011 when I purchased an iPad 2. With the tablet in my possession my laptop became less of a necessity. Over the years the balance of my work has shifted more and more to my iPad workflow. At present my balance is perhaps 90-95% iPad and 5-10% MacBook. There are certain things I do only on my MacBook but, more and more, I just work seamlessly between the two devices depending on my needs at the time ⁶.

What a difference eleven years makes. It happened so fast!