The Technology Spectator

I have been an engaged spectator through the entire personal computing era. The change has been stunning. I can’t imagine what it looks like to my parents. They grew up before television, when only some homes had phones!

Does my daughter even understand the extent of change since she was a child?

The Phillies game is playing next to me. It’s on my tablet, leaning against a sofa cushion, outside in the California room–aka, the patio. Meanwhile, I’m also typing on a laptop kept out here. My phone, screen up, is on the table. Helaine just called. She and Stef are over an hour away.

Nothing in the first paragraph existed when Helaine and I were married. No cellphones. No Internet. No pocket size (or wall size) video screens. We thought before making expensive long distance calls.

I have been an engaged spectator through the entire personal computing era. The change has been stunning. I can’t imagine what it looks like to my parents. They grew up before television, when only some homes had phones!

Does my daughter even understand the extent of change since she was a child?

It’s not just that screens exist, but the breadth of material available to fill them. What can’t I beckon? What information isn’t available?

It’s an immensely profitable business. Someone will figure out how to compete with newer technology. Prices will plummet. Falling prices is an inevitable given in this technological age.

I see contemporaries who’ve failed to embrace this revolution that’s swept over us. Some take pride in their Luddite position, though it’s obvious they don’t know what they don’t know! I feel sorry for them.

3 thoughts on “The Technology Spectator”

  1. Jeff,
    My neighbor is a ninety three year old woman and she is on the computer every day. Seven years ago she went to the Apple store, bought a computer, and took lessons from Apple on how to use the computer. Shame on those people who think they are too old to learn computers.

  2. My father was a physicist by profession and even he was stunned by the evolution of the CPU’s in PCs. He kept waiting and waiting for a hard ceiling in the development of the chips because of heat and other specifications. If he were alive today, I think he would be even more stunned.

  3. Geoff,
    I grew up w/o a telephone or television–in our house. We didn’t get a phone til after WW2,–it was after my 2nd sister was born in ’49. We were able to get a small 6″ black and white TV from a friend whose brother repaired TV’s. We moved from hat house when I was a Sr in HS—into a home semi built by my parents and friends. They had to have the frame up before the bank would lend them the money–so the housewas built in stages, as money became available—my dad working OT in the factory after the war helped. Probably didn’t get a bigger TV til the late ’50’s.
    My husband’s first computer was a Timex hooked up to an old TV monitor (black and white). I imagine—had he lived (he died in ’07)that we would be more up to date than I am now! I still struggle —nor can I afford to take on all the hand held technology there is today. I’m just wondering what ATT is charging out there for the combined pkg of TV, Internet , cell and land line out there—my montly bill is over $200. It is going to get interesting in the upcoming months!

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