Thursday, October 8, 2009

Technology yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Today I'd like to relate a conversation I recently had with my 8-year-old grandson Seth.

This fall, Seth got his first cell phone to use in case of emergencies. He's the youngest in his family and the only one still in elementary school. Both his parents work.
Seth came over to show me his new phone. It's green and very cool looking. He pointed out where my name was on the list of programmed telephone numbers.
Then he said, "Grandma, where's your phone."
I pointed to the telephone on an end table beside the loveseat. He's often used it to call home to say good night to his mother when he's slept over.
He stared at it a moment, and then he looked at me, then he looked back at the telephone.
Confused, he asked, "How do you text?"

My grandson is growing up in a world where cell phones and text messaging are normal, and my old telephone with its land line is outdated.

I wonder what the world will be like when he is my age.

During my lifetime, transistors were invented, so was colored television, stereo sound, and the computer chip. I watched eight-tract tapes come and go, cassette tapes almost vanish, and vinyl records become collector's items. VHS has almost been replaced by DVD, and now DVD is being edged out by Blu-ray.

In 1957 I stared at the night sky until I saw Sputnik creep across the stars. I was glued to the TV as the first men stepped onto the moon. I remember when computers were huge things only used by the government and large corporations. I watched the original Star Trek television series and was stunned by the special effects.

I was alive when the polio vaccine was developed, when the first heart transplant was performed, and when the World Health Organization announced the eradication of smallpox.

When I was little there were things called "gas wars." To steal each other's business, competing gas stations would lower the price of gasoline sometimes below $.20 a gallon, and while one attendant filled the tank, another one would wash your windows, check your oil, check the air pressure in your tires, and give the children in the car lollipops. Back then, candy bars cost a nickel, soft ice cream cones were a dime, and a hamburger was a quarter.

If I stop to think how drastically the world has changed, how far technology has come, how different daily life is now compared to my childhood, I feel like I must have grown up in a science fiction movie. When I try to imagine the world 50, 75, or 100 years from now, I can't. All I am sure of is that, if civilization doesn't do anything stupid to destroy itself, and if technology continues to develop at this rapid pace, the future will be strange and wondrous for those lucky enough to see it.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Public Journalizing

Back in my day, girls kept diaries, which almost always came with a lock and key. The locks were actually useless since they could be opened with a straight pin, but they were symbols of the books' private nature. Even if we didn't have anything exciting or risque to record, we would hide our diaries under the mattress, or in an old hat box, or maybe in the bottom of our dirty clothes hamper. We didn't want to risk having anyone peer into our secrets, even our boring secrets.

Today, people post their whole lives on the internet. Nothing seems too personal to share. It makes me wonder what has changed.

I've read articles that say technology has created a generation with little desire for interpersonal interactions. They say young people spend their time on computer games that let them assume new identities and allow them to interact with artificial people. They say all this keeps them distant from other human beings. Perhaps it does for a while. But the popularity of cell phones and text messaging indicates to me that this generation is dedicated to communicating with family and friends.

The danger of the internet isn't that it is diminishing human relationships and communication. I think the danger is that it is changing the nature of those interactions. I am concerned that we are creating a generation of exhibitionists and voyeurs.

It reminds me of an old joke. A young woman calls the police to complain that her neighbor is a Peeping Tom and is always looking in her bedroom window. The police talk to the neighbor and he says the young woman has the habit of keeping her curtains open while she parades around nude. When the police tell the young woman what the neighbor said, she answers: "Well, that doesn't mean he has to watch."

Exhibition and voyeurism. They go hand in hand.

The internet makes it possible for us to parade our thoughts around in their barest form. We feel that we are doing what we want in the privacy of our homes while we type away on our kepboards. When we post the end result, we are opening the curtains so anyone can view or ignore, evaluate or praise or criticize, what we say. Like the nude young women, we don't need to take responsibility for what we present. No one is forced to look. Likewise, those who gaze through the window don't have to take any responsibility because what they see is openly presented.

This seems wrong to me. When we talk with someone, we share equal responsibility for what is said and what is heard. I think we need to take an equal responsibility on the internet. We need to think about whether the messages we are posting have any value, and I think we should give feedback to the authors of what we read. That way we won't be exhibitionists and voyeurs. We will be joint participants in an interaction.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Techno-phobe or Misoneist or Both

This morning I tried to decide if I really am a techno-phobe, and the answer is yes. Technology terrifies me. But it goes beyond that.

I am also a misoneist. (For those of you who have never come across this word before, it's pronounced miss-uh-NEE-ist.) A misoneist is a person who hates change or innovation.

One of my big confusions with technological innovations is that I don't know what's new and what's old-but-still-in-use.

For Example: Yesterday I was typing and my cursor froze. My standard solution to any computer problem is to unplug everything, wait five minutes, plug everything back in and hope the problem has corrected itself. It didn't.
So I called Natasha, my granddaughter and computer coach. I told her what had happened and what I had done.
She said, "Is the mouse still plugged in?"
I said, "The mouse doesn't plug in. It's one of those remote things."
She said, "Is the (I can't remember what she called it) still plugged into the (whatever) port?"
I checked and it was still firmly in place.
She said, "Did you check the mouse's battery?"
And I said, "Uh, what battery?"

Back in my day, I knew that anything electrical that was not plugged into a wall socket had to be running on a battery. But computer stuff is so different, how was I suppose to know the mouse used anything as commonplace as a battery? For all I knew it was powered by a genie, two wizards, and a witch all working together.

According to Edwin Percy Whipple, "The universal line of distinction between the strong and the weak is that one persists; the other hesitates, falters, trifles, and at last collapses or caves in."

Well, Edwin, I'm not going to cave in. That means I'm going to persist until I'm able to use today's technology unafraid. (If I don't chicken-out.)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

blogging for the techno-phobic

I have been talking to a few friends and it seems like most of them try to have a theme to their blogging. The themes mentioned were dieting, getting through school, money, artistic talents, and politics.

I decided to focus my blogging around my experiences as I try to enter the age of technology. My granddaughter, Natasha, has agreed to be my coach. She has successfully gotten me set up on Facebook and Twitter, and on this blogging site.

I am beginning to learn a little of the necessary language. I have learned that the word blog comes from combining the last letter of "world wide web" with the word "log" (as in a log book), meaning that a blog is a written record available on the world wide web. I was surprised to find the word had a logical background to its creation.

I am still struggling with the twitter/tweet concepts but I imagine that will come soon. I have promised my granddaughter that once I get a handle on all this internet stuff, I will consider tackling a cell phone. (Shudder! Whimper! Gasp!)

I am a devoted Quote Collector and I selected one for today's challenge.

You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometime fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand. --Robert Louis Stevenson

I have committed to fighting it out until I master it. Wish me luck.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Hi everyone, I just started this blog now.

Thought for the day-
"The longest journey starts with a single step."

Today is step one as I learn how to share my life with others via the internet.

Tune in tomorrow for another try.
Let me know how your life is going.