Introducing my Always On newsletter

I spent much of 2020 writing a book about the era when smartphones and social media came together to change our lives in so many ways. It’s quite a personal book, reflecting on what it was like to cover this era as a BBC correspondent, the challenges of dealing with the vast PR army hyping up the tech companies, and my various health challenges and my hopes. that technology could make a difference in this area. The pandemic, which arrived a couple of months into the writing process made quite an impact, both in locking me into the loft of our Ealing home and getting on with it, and in bringing into sharp relief the pluses and minuses of the technology of the smartphone era.

Always On, published on May 13th by Bloomsbury, was at one stage going to include some photos but in the end that wasn’t possible. So I thought I would use this newsletter to give a flavour of the book using a photo - nearly always taken by me on a smartphone - to illustrate each chapter.

I also hope to start discussion around some of its themes. Why did the iPhone effectively wipe out Nokia and Blackberry? Do you remember when you first suspected that Facebook might not be a force for good? Was Stephen Hawking being alarmist when he warned me that AI could be the end for humanity? And what did Raspberry Pi show us about building a successful British company in an era dominated by American tech giants?

This is a first tentative step into the substack world to see if I like it and it might provide a platform for other writing or podcasts.

Oh, and by the way, do feel free to buy the book and tell your friends about it