Technology

Do you ever think about technology - its amazing how quickly it changes. I think about the things that my parents and grandparents didn't have that I can't imagine living without. Seriously, how did mothers SURVIVE without microwaves anyway? Or how about the fact that I could not believe when I was a junior in high school and my sister and I finally got our own phone line - and now neither of us even have any kind of land line in our homes at all.

While I remember the first VHS my family got growing up - it wasn't until just a couple of years ago we finally got a DVD player. You know how we got it? I'll share. Technically our first DVD player was a cast off, embarrassingly enough, from my more technology savvy parents. The remote never worked and so you only had the few buttons that were actually ON the player. Loads of fun when you can't "select" anything especially when the DVD you rented was set on "french" as the language and YOU could change it - if only, if only you could select English. Now, at the same time we techno-savvy folk had a sweet set-up - our old rack systems from middle school - tape player, tuner, large speakers and Dave's CD player. Nice. Well, the speakers were kinda on the fritz, then the CD player busted once and for all and then really the entire tuner was pretty much dead. We're thinking GREAT, we have to purchase a WHOLE RACK SYSTEM! So we head out to see how much that will be - and guess what we find out. Do you people know that for just a couple hundred bucks you can actually get 5 speaker surround sound system where the CD player CONTAINS the tuner and plays not only CD's but DVD's and the radio??? Phenomenal technology. Now the glass doors on the entertainment center hold all our old VHS tapes instead of a big rack system. Amazing technology.


The one I'm particularly jealous of is the whole Internet, email, cell phone stuff. Oh, teens today have it so easy! I remember trying to find payphones (remember all the "here's a quarter, call someone who cares jokes?!) to call home to say what I was doing with friends. Remember all the 10 cent long distance calling plans? Yes, I will clearly date myself as ancient here but WHILE I was in college - towards the end, they did announce that we could get free email addresses (whatever that was!) but you could only use them in the dumpy computer lab on the far end of campus so nobody bothered. I tell you I'm up nights still thinking about the money I could have saved on my long-distance romance with my future hubby if only we had simple basics like email and free mobile to mobile long distance calling plans or even just free calling after 9pm!
The thing about technology, is that once you've upgraded to the new technology you can't dream of ever going back again because you don't know how you managed to LIVE without it. This is why I personally dread upgrading my technology. I do my best to stay behind the curve, this way not only has it come down in price but I also knew that once I make that dreaded move, I'll never go back again. Yes folks, I married into my first CD player - seriously, because after investing that kind of cash in cassette tapes its hard to replace it all and start over again! Seriously though, I held out quite a while on the cell phone deal too, and then had to go a little while back to just my hubby having a cell with virtually no minutes and it was killer. Believe it or not, I was still working dial-up until about a year ago, now I don't know how I ever lived without my lap-top on wi-fi.

Am I just getting older or does it seem like the technology changes even quicker than it used to. Smart phones, facebook, blogs, twitter. With all this new technology comes a new way of life and new etiquette still evolving. How acceptable is it to talk on the phone in public, at dinner? How about texting? In class? In meetings? While driving? You'll find people to argue every side on these issues because there is no real social etiquette set on these things yet. Also, these technologies create new ways to interact. A great thing from one point of view - keeping in touch has never been easier - a quick click on facebook or details on a microblog. However, does everyone always care to know all these details about our lives and do we sometimes forget all the people that are reading and knowing all this micro slices of what we're up to and who we are? I've learned a lot about people I hardly know simply by reading their facebook status. I don't think that I really know them - but it does begin to draw a picture of them in some ways... what is important to them, what makes them laugh? What happens if you DON'T accept a friend request or you don't follow a friends twitter and what if you say you don't care to read everyone's blog? Or how about declining an invitation for something in real life and then forgetting and posting a status that says you were up to something entirely different? Technology - can't live with it - can't live without it!