Note: SPOILERS abound - please proceed at your own risk.
All screen captures from Sherlock (2010) DVD
I was teaching technical support to a class back in 2006 and I asked my trainees if any of them had ever read a Sherlock Holmes story. Sadly, none of them did (though I'm pretty sure they came out in droves when Robert Downey Jr. appeared in Guy Ritchie's rendition of the London detective). With Benedict Cumberbatch's 6-episode turn as the immortal sleuth, no one has an acceptable reason for skipping Holmes' adventures especially since this sexier and less amiable version is clearly living in the digital age.
It's a very realistic depiction of how an intelligent man with average (by today's standards) technical abilities uses computers and devices efficiently. Unlike most people, who use sites such as Google and Wikipedia as a crutch to reason, defend, make decisions, or just promote themselves, Sherlock uses them as tools - as computers and the Internet were designed to be. Moreover, unlike the CSI shows, which overstates and overuses (and according to experts inaccurately) depicts the use of technology, Sherlock's use of the Internet and smartphones is firmly grounded and emphasizes intelligence rather than dependency. In fact, episodes which depict Holmes using a basic electron microscope and software to analyze chemical content may be pedestrian but it's actual lab software.
1. He uses them to communicate. Text messaging occurs often in the episodes. Holmes instructs Watson (who is exceptionally played by The Hobbit's Martin Freeman) to make phone calls (to Lestrade, the police, or Mycroft).
2. He checks the weather (as shown in the episode Study in Pink), images of the city and the high tide/low tide (The Great Game), and checks news bulletins and popular sites.
3. The maps on his smartphone only supplement his already comprehensive knowledge of London's labyrinthian alleyways (I've actually seen people take out their smartphones just to navigate their own street).
4. Holmes uses search on laptops and phones to confirm, review, and reference his ideas and opinions, conjectures, and conclusions. Meanwhile, in the real world, a German politician plagiarized his dissertation, as did an Australian's doctorate thesis, just this year. People online pass off their work as their own and pretend to know stuff they really don't (like this Russian who Googles everything just to prove he's "technical"). Even news journalists and writers quote Wikipedia, not even bothering to do additional research. Holmes uses his own skills to confirm what other resources assume is false or even true. In a climactic scene in the episode The Great Game, Sherlock quickly searches online using his smartphone to confirm that it was the astronomical inaccuracy of a painting that proves it is an imitation.
5. Holmes uses his phone's camera to take quick snapshots of evidence or events. Now, in most cases, I'm against using mobile devices for taking photos (there's nothing more laughable than some tourist using his iPad to take a photo of his friend standing in front of the Shanghai skyline). However, Holmes uses his mobile phone for taking photos as reference, not for trivial and pedestrian reasons like printing it out or posting them on Twitter. Photography "enthusiasts" spend oodles of money on DSLRs and accessories with no idea how to use the features - they don't even bother to read the manual and take shoddy useless photos. Holmes uses what he needs, no more and no less.
6. Unlike users who believe their phone and choice of platform defines who they are and what they do (Mac vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android), Holmes is largely more utilitarian. He's not chained to his own devices and even uses other people's phones and Watson's laptop (much to his friend's indignation).
7. As seen in the first season, he has a simple web site that discusses his methods, which may indicate either basic knowledge of web development or use of preconfigured blogs/web sites like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com. In the third set of episodes, Sherlock is shown using a Macbook though there are two scenes where his or Watson's laptop is an unmarked Samsung or Dell running Windows 7 (both identifiable by the design of the lid and the Windows orb).
8. Watson learns that Holmes hardly gets paid for his efficient services. That and the fact that Holmes is clearly not using the latest Samsung, Apple, or Sony hardware proves that Holmes uses what device he has on hand. But what phone or laptop Holmes does have, he uses to best effect. Most people with disposable income, on the other hand, buy, trade, and toss aside devices incessantly, boasting about their new product in forums and complaining vigorously about everything from the weight, screen size, and included apps.
Continued in The Digital Man: Sherlock Holmes (2011) Part 2
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