In the second half of last year, I stopped blogging about technology on a regular basis and spent more time focusing on other writing projects. I know it was hard on all of you. Computers and the Internet are scary things, and you probably feel lost right now.

To help get you back on track, here are five tips geared towards embracing technology in the new year. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter to catch all of my mini-rants on the latest tech news and developments.

1. Give streaming music a shot

I gave up iTunes for Lent last year and haven’t looked back since signing up for an Rdio subscription. I pay $9.99 per month and stream albums to my Mac and iPhone all day long.

The only hiccup in the growth of streaming music services has been the recent trend of bands (Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys) withholding their new releases from Rdio and Spotify. It’s a messy situation, because these artists feel like streaming music is killing their industry, and meanwhile, Rdio and Spotify have almost no hope of becoming profitable thanks to the demands of the music labels.

My advice is this: if you are near a computer for most of your day, use Rdio or Spotify as your personal jukebox and as a way to explore new artists and albums. If you feel guilty about shortchanging your favorite bands and singers, then pay for the album on iTunes or, even better, pick up a copy from your local music seller.

2. Move your documents to Dropbox

I always thought of Dropbox as nothing more than a flash drive in the sky. Sure, it would let me store up to 2 GB of data online and give me access to it from anywhere – but I could already do that with Apple’s iDisk service or even just by emailing files to myself.

Then iCloud launched, essentially killing iDisk, and I took that as a sign to give Dropbox a try. I quickly discovered that the service is much more than just an online flash drive. Because of its desktop client for Macs and PCs, Dropbox can replace the need for storing files on your local computer. The magic of Dropbox is that your files are available whether or not you are connected to the Internet - and the syncing to your cloud storage is done entirely in the background.

As I mentioned before, Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage space for free and offers paid plans for more gigabytes. I suggest you start with the free package and use it for your text documents, spreadsheets and presentations (music, video and pictures take up too much space). Dropbox will sync your data across all of your devices so that you never have to worry about manually transferring files or accidentally editing the wrong version of a document.

3. Get your Twitter life under control

The first step to getting your Twitter life under control is to comb through your timeline and unfollow all the accounts that you do not consider essential. Obviously everyone tweets at different rates, but I estimate that following any more than 100 accounts is dangerous (and yes, I’m currently breaking my own rule).

Then take all those people who you considered non-essential but are still interested in and filter them into Twitter lists based on their category, profession or whatever the hell you want. I currently have five Twitter lists set up to complement my main timeline: News, Tech, Sports, Local and Companies. Also, consider migrating any RSS feeds that you still check into Twitter lists.

Treat your lists as news tickers that you quickly scroll through when you have a free minute. But be careful about adding too many news sites and blogs to your Twitter lists, since their nonstop tweeting can quickly become overwhelming. And no matter what, DO NOT attempt to read every tweet from your main timeline and all of your Twitter lists. Trust me, I’ve tried it – and the journey back from Internet Addiction Disorder is a long one.

4. Cleanse your devices

Take a look at the icons on your smartphone. Do you still use or need all of those apps? What about the downloads folder on your laptop? Are you saving those dancing cat GIFs for a special occasion?

It’s easy for your digital devices to get cluttered. Why not try to reverse that trend in 2012?

Go through your phone and delete the apps, messages and contacts you don’t need anymore. Then sift through the folders on your computer, removing unnecessary files and transferring stuff that can be archived to an external hard drive.

If you are feeling really adventurous, format your computer or mobile device and force yourself to start from scratch. (Just make sure you back up all your data beforehand.) You’ll feel more organized, and your gadgets will probably run faster too.

5. Pick a new password right now

Look, I know changing passwords is a pain in the butt. I picked a password for my first AOL screen name in sixth grade, used it for just about every site and service I signed up for over the next decade, and didn’t come up with a new one until I graduated from college.

To be extra careful with your online security, you should really use a different password for each site or application and change them up every few months. But that’s a lot to ask, so I suggest starting with my approach: choose a new password at the beginning of every January and then devote a few hours to updating the credentials for all your online accounts. As the year goes on, keep a running list of every site that you create an account on, and that will help make the annual password change a little bit easier.

According to the Apple rumor mill, you should expect to see an iTunes-based music streaming service in the very near future. The only problem is that this service has been rumored to be in the “very near future” for a very long time (at least in tech years, which are capable of taking your new smartphone and making it old before you even get it out of the box).

Well, Apple might need to speed up its plans thanks to the bomb dropped by Spotify yesterday. Spotify is the streaming music company that emerged as a huge hit in Europe but has so far struggled to secure licensing agreements with the record labels in the United States. It uses a subscription model (similar to my beloved Rdio) that lets you listen to any song from your computer or smartphone for a flat monthly fee.

And now, as Spotify revealed on its website, subscribers can get that same giant library of tunes on their iPod Classic, Nano or Shuffle – even though those devices are not Internet enabled. When you connect a traditional iPod to your computer, the new version of Spotify will recognize it and let you sync your playlists in the MP3 format.

This is a big development because it marks the first opportunity to get music on an iPod without ever having to open iTunes. If Spotify is able to bring its service and this type of functionality to the U.S. before Apple launches its own cloud model, the iTunes brand could find itself in real danger of losing dominance in the digital music market.

The race has begun.

I’m willing to admit that I have an iTunes problem. I’ve gotten into the habit of doing too much clicking on new music Tuesdays, and by the end of the month, my iTunes bill is larger than the pile of snow at the end of my driveway.

While I have tried to start cutting down on my music spending, it’s a tough habit to break – you get accustomed to always having new albums to explore.

That’s why I’m eagerly awaiting for the iTunes model of music sales to die. And two new reports make it sound like that day is getting closer.

According to All Things Digital, Spotify has come to terms with another major record label, and there’s only two more to go before the service can launch in the U.S. Spotify is a streaming platform that is currently available in some European locations. With a subscription for the service, you can listen to music on all of your devices and computers, make as many playlists as you want, and even store songs for offline playback. There’s also a free model that supports ads.

The other development in the digital music realm is a little less official. Speaking at a Mobile World Congress event, a Motorola executive indicated that a Google music service will be unleashed alongside the new versions of Android being rolled out soon. No one knows whether it will mimic the iTunes model or be focused on streaming.

Personally, Spotify is the service that gets me most aroused. I would gladly pay up to $20 a month for unrestricted access to a comprehensive music library from my phone and computer. There has been speculation that Apple may turn iTunes into a streaming service, but if Spotify lands in America before that happens, I’ll have no problem removing iTunes from my dock.