I recently left my longtime post as a full-time newspaper/blog editor, one that required me to be electronically plugged in 24/7. I spent most of the workday (and, let’s face it, many hours beyond) physically sitting at an actual computer and editing, Tweeting, whatever. Now that I’m pursuing new different projects  — including one that involves a lot of cooking! — I figured I would feel a little untethered from all the social media accounts that previously kept me going through a boring workday.

I realized that I’m still as plugged in as before. I recently got around to upgrading my iPhone to an iPhone 4, and with all the upgraded apps on it I don’t have to get to my physical computer too much. I am on Twitter and Facebook as constantly as if I were on my laptop or old work desktop, and am even able to do basic photo editing, blogging, note-taking, and organizing on my phone. I realized I don’t really miss sitting down to an actual larger screen most of the time.

For heavier-duty computer stuff like video editing and more detailed photo editing, I’m still using my laptop, and I haven’t really found a need for an in-between device like the iPad yet. However, once the iPad apps improve their word-processing functionality and cloud service hookups a little better, I may consider switching to one and leaving the desktops in the dust except when absolutely necessary.