I’m just going to jump
right in here and get directly to the point, as we all pretty much use
technology and digital social media now. But, I thought it would be fun to have
a nostalgic trip down memory lane, while I still have memories to share.
I can still remember the
wall mounted black rotary telephone I used as a child, I remember when black
and white television became color, and I remember a telephone booth on every
corner for .10 cents to call home if I was going to be late. But nothing prepared
me as I grew into young adulthood into the computer age.
I was 29
years old when I first touched a computer. I was dating a really smart guy and
he took it upon himself to introduce me to the digital era. Back then in the
early 1990s, the Internet was a black screen with white or green lettering and
not at all user friendly. It was called a “bulletinboard system” (BBS) and I watched in amazement as I virtually spoke with people online,
I was in awe of this new device called PC and it made me feel really smart.
I spoke to this new device in what was called DOS and I thought this PC was so fascinating. But, that was before something called a GUI interface (graphical user interface) which came out a couple of years later. My new device knowledge enabled me to get hired for jobs using these new devices. I couldn't believe that after years of being an average student that I suddenly grew a brain and got really, really smart and my salary grew right along with that brain.
But my new device kept growing and changing so rapidly that it was literally mind blowing. Just as I learned Microsoft 3.0, 3.1 came out, then another version, and another. I thought, just how many of these versions am I going to have to learn, anyway? Then, it hit me as I began to work in the technology industry in 1996, that this was an evolution, another major transition like the Industrial Revolution, that was never going to stop evolving and that we’re all just going to be driven to madness by a massively lengthy continuum of lifelong learning!
Then, to
complicate matters even more, PCs got smaller, cell phones got bigger and the
Internet was responsible for the shotgun marriage of PC and cell phone, and
they had a huge baby named Smartphone. At
first smart phones had ridiculously cumbersome and limited software on them and
it was incredibly frustrating to connect to the Internet using the device.
Then, as smart
phone software evolved and became more user friendly, the Internet through us a
curve and introduced the second huge baby in their family by the name of social media, and that baby grew up with
a lot of friends by the names of Facebook,
Twitter, Myspace, Google, Yahoo! and a bunch of characters called websites!
Well,
things got really crazy with social media and the Internet was deemed as an
unregulated entity protected by the U.S. First Amendment. So, you know what
happens when kids go unsupervised, right? Yep. Social Media grew up as
renegades and smart aleck-y know-it-alls and surpassed many of us in
technological and social media savvy.
I think I
first realized it when my friends started having kids who were playing with
smart phones as toddlers, as I was struggling with the operation of the smart
phones that made me feel so dumb!
I just
could not, and still cannot justify learning Twitter. I don’t know anyone that uses it, although I do enjoy
receiving breaking news through it. I prefer Facebook, because all my old friends from the 1980s know how to use
that, and it makes me feel less lonely. The more I use social media, the less I
interact with humans. I’m not too sure if I mind, really, as I age I find
myself growing pretty intolerant of most folks and prefer the company of my
cat, Marley.
I’m in my
mid-fifties now and still learning new media technology especially every time
something new comes out. I’m currently teaching myself Instagram, and I’m so happy I can post my images to my Facebook page to share with my old
friends. I even inspire some of them to learn new media, too. But, it’s so time
consuming to learn all the new social media communications sites all the time.
What I have
noticed is that this second generation, I call the grand kids, is a more user friendly bunch who make new rules for a
more progressive standard in terms of social media communication.
For example
the grand kids don’t care much for
typing, so they developed some shorthand language called texting. I really like texting, but with limited characters, I just
can’t seem to finish my novel on my smart phone. My smart phone and I have finally made peace
and I love it. Because, it looks like the grand kids are heading towards more
video based forms of communication now that YouTube
has finally come of age and had its own baby named Snapchat!
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