Day 17 = Technology

My head is spinning with all I want to say on this subject.

It amazes me.

It infuriates me.

It is a blessing.

And, it’s a curse.

Remember the original Walkman? You know the one that played cassette tapes and had puffy black foam earphones. When you would go on a trip you needed a second carrying case for all of your cassettes. Hopefully, you made a lot of mix tapes off of the radio so that you loved every song. If not, and you purchased the whole Regina Cassette for “Baby Love” you had to fast forward/ rewind and guess when to stop. Back and forth until you reached the pause before the song started. Now, you can have hundreds of individual songs that you absolutely love on a tiny little jukebox.

Speaking of that road trip. You had travel Connect Four and Battleship to help pass the time. Now, you play by yourself  on a hand held electronic toy. Or you can choose to watch a feature film on the way to the grocery store. Ok, so let’s transition to TV/video. Remember the dial knobs on the old sets with the rabbit ears that you had to get up and turn clockwise to switch the station? You had roughly 5 channels and then a couple UHF channels. You had to arrange your schedule so that you could see The Wizard of Oz or It’s a Wonderful Life because it only came on once a year.

I totally remember going with my dad to the store to pick up the first VCR… the one that when you pushed eject it would pop up from the top of the machine. I swear he paid $800 for it in 1984. Now you can pick up a dvd player for $50. Anyway, it was fantastic because now when you wanted to watch a particular movie you could… whenever! Another form of instant gratification.  And then there is DVR.  No more combing through the TV Guide in the Sunday paper, inserting a blank VHS tape, and scheduling the recording. Easy programming for your life. And, pausing live TV… how cool is that?

Back in the day,  only people with money had computers. It was a Texas Instruments computer that typed in green with a blinking curser. And pretty much the only thing you could do on it was write out a short program to tell it to repeat the word “RUN” indefinitely on the screen. Today, most homes in North America have at least one computer. We use it for everything. No more looking things up in the 1973 Edition of the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedias. No joke, we had this exact set in our home and I did research projects using them. Research changes by the minute today. Need a recipe, directions, shopping? Don’t ask a friend or your mom. Just Google it.

Ok, now don’t even get me started on phones. Remember, sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring… hoping it would be ________. Only to have it be someone wanting your mom. And you would wait, tapping your foot wondering if _________ was calling through and getting a busy signal? Of course, when you did get a call you were allotted a 10 ft radius because the cord would only let you go so far. Now your phone is basically a life source for calls, photos, videos, directions, entertainment, etc. I mean really, there are times when I wonder how we ever met someone at a location without everyone having a phone in pocket. You mean, we actually had to search for the person and possibly wait for them to arrive if they were behind schedule?

Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy all that technology offers. I’m thankful and blessed to have these items. I couldn’t do my job without these items. I’m thankful to be reachable when needed. I love being able to stay connected with friends and family from all over the world. The problem I have it that it seems we still aren’t satisfied. How on earth can we or our children be bored with all of the modern conveniences? But, we are bored. When I’m bored or in a funk, the computer and the world wide web is my drug of choice. I can get lost for hours “researching” photography… sometimes feeling worse about my abilities or lack of resources for the newest toy. I spend time “connecting” with people but not having deep IRL relationships. Sometimes the best thing I can do is get away from all of these gadgets and plug into my family.

Ok, so if anyone has made it that far, I’m sure you are begging me to shut up. It all comes down to the fact that I have a love/hate relationship with technology. It makes me wonder what these 2 will be saying 25 years from now about how different things are now compared to 2036.