Sometimes I find it difficult to believe that we’re already 15 years into the twenty-first century. How did we get here? Where did all the time go? Why is time moving so fast?

Quite often, I feel like this century definitely isn’t for me, and I was much more comfortable in the last century. I definitely feel like a twentieth century guy.

You just have to have a look at my desk at work to realise why. Everybody else around me in the office has at least two big screens in front of them (and sometimes more). As for me, I can’t handle that. One screen is more than enough for me. Anything more is definitely information overload. As someone with a twentieth century ability to absorb information, my limits are reached very quickly.

Beside my computer is another dead giveaway about my inability to deal with this new century. That’s right, it’s an actual telephone. Very few people in the office actually have a standalone landline phone. Most have some softphone dohicky which is part of their computer. Me, I definitely need my own phone. My twentieth century brain couldn’t possibly copy with anything more high tech than that.

Speaking of phones, the fact that I don’t own a mobile phone of any kind is one of the things that characterises me most strongly as a twentieth century guy. I mean, forget about smartphones, I don’t even have the most basic model. And the idea that I need to be connected at all times to everyone and everything is something my twentieth century values recoil against. I like my privacy. I like my me time. I just like the fact that for large proportions of my time I’m not connected.

And do you want to hear something really twentieth century? I actually watch broadcast TV. I don’t download or stream. I actually sit and watch the commercials and everything. And I love it. I feel like such a throwback. It’s awesome.

There’s one final way that I display my true twentieth century guy credentials. It’s in my favourite form of entertainment. Nothing digital. Nothing interactive and electronic. It’s just a good old-fashioned book. Which is why, as a creative person, the only thing I want to produce is my own books. Nothing high tech. No multimedia or virtual reality. Just good old books. Never been bettered as far as I’m concerned.

So the new century can roll on. I’m happy living in my twentieth century bubble, creating my old-fashioned books.

Want to know what I think about a world that moves to fast? You can download a free copy of my novella Doodling at http://www.jonathangouldwriter.com/doodling/.