How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Dionne Searcey, The Times’s West Africa bureau chief based in Dakar, Senegal, discussed the tech she’s using.

What does the technology landscape looks like in West Africa? How is internet connectivity? Do people use Facebook and Google?

Internet connectivity has really soared in the last few years. I can get 3G in most major cities and 4G exists in a handful of places, or at least is advertised as existing.

Even just a few years ago, reporters needed to carry a BGAN, a portable satellite modem the size of a hardcover novel. I rarely take one. When I arrive in a new city, I always buy a SIM card with a data plan. But pretty much any cafe or restaurant will hand you a Wi-Fi password if you ask for it, and even small hotels in out-of-the-way places seem to manage to rig some kind of Wi-Fi system. One hotel in Maradi, Niger, about 400 miles outside the capital, had routers taped to the ceiling all over the hallways.