When I first started at the Herald in 1999, the fax was always red-hot, everything was typed manually into the system and we didn't have e-mail.

Now we're fully connected to the World Wide Web, cutting and pasting information sent electronically to make up stories or putting letters straight onto a page is standard and the quality of digital image technology means we are getting more contributed pictures from readers than ever before.

It's strange to think how far we've come in such a short space of time. Even putting a cheque through a letterbox for the plumber to me seems old fashioned when you consider the strength of Internet banking.

But it's not just the office environment that has altered thanks to the digital revolution – life on the road has changed too.

Use of satellite navigation systems is growing, and in some quarters, it is thought motorists are becoming too reliant on 'easy' information from the sat nav to negotiate an unfamiliar route.

People in Pevensey have reported higher volumes of heavy goods vehicles using the narrow, twisting High Street because the driver is following sat nav instructions.

The fear is that, not only the risk of accidents increasing, the curtain wall of Pevensey Castle could be damaged if an HGV failed to follow the turns of the road with enough precision.

And in the last three years, we have had two cases of motorists following sat nav instructions on country roads and turning onto railway lines.

It could be in the future this technology will be refined so the correct tonnage of vehicle will follow the correct class of road, but for now nothing beats checking a map – or using your eyes.

Saturday's Dr Who episode had a clever spin on the use of satellite navigation systems – aliens were infiltrating them and using them to make marked drivers turn into rivers or canals.

While sat nav as a murder weapon remains fully in the realms of science fiction, the thought of any vehicle being traced at any time through the system doesn't.

Compulsory satellite navigation for every road user? Now I've just gone and frightened myself with Big Brother.