Okay, I know this has a bit of an “uphill both ways, barefoot, in the snow” tinge to it…but I really like the comparison I was able to document on this page I did on Sunday. Plus, I kinda dig the reflection-in-the-computer photos.
(click to biggify)
I will admit I don’t always understand technology or know how to use it instinctively, but I still think it’s pretty darn cool. In fact, one of my favorite tabs in my category drawers is the Technology tab. I think it's fun to reflect on how far technology has come since my childhood, or my grandmother’s…and wonder how different things will be from my kids’ perspectives when they are adults.
Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet yet when I was a teen. There were no cell phones, and if pagers were around, they were still only for doctors at that point. If you weren’t home to answer your phone, it just rang, unless you were some sort of howty-towty business-type with an answering service – which meant someone could call a number where there was a person waiting to take a message for you. I had to carry home an armload of books (uphill, but not in the snow)…there was no such thing as a digital textbook. Cable TV and microwaves were still newfangled gizmos.
It’s hard for me to imagine that things could get much easier than they already have…and yet, newer, cooler things come out all the time.
When I was 15, I got busted for running up a $62 phone bill, and had to work to pay it off. If you had told me then that there would one day be a way to video conference with far-away friends for free via something called Skype, I would have told you to stop watching so much of The Jetsons. I was convinced that the coolest thing to ever happen to phone technology was the 6 foot cord, and those speaker phone booths sponsored by AT&T at Disneyland. And now? One word: iPhone.
I’m sure my kids will look at this page one day at laugh at the primitive device Kendra used for homework. And I can’t wait to see what the next generation uses instead.
