The first real piece of tech that I owned was the original Sony Walkman, circa 1984. My Walkman was complete with a purse like strap for easy carrying. I wore mine cross-body, all the rage for 9 year old girls. To complete the ensemble I had the original earphones... That Walkman gave me a sense of freedom. I know that it sounds somewhat silly to equate a Walkman with freedom, but for my young alter ego the freedom to listen to Micheal Jackson's Thriller outside was the embodiment of liberty.
Moving through my life I never shied away from tech. Sometimes I have found tech unbelievably frustrating. I speak of WordPerfect.... To this day I don't know how that program made money!!! F10, shift F7, F8! Ugghh, I am having terrible flashbacks to high school and my senior project paper.
I like tech to be intuitive and user friendly. I will push buttons and experiment until I get a device or program to do what I want it to do--- until I reach a breaking point, more or less my frustration threshold. I am a patient person by nature, so my frustration threshold is pretty high. WordPerfect tried my patience, any kind of code that I have to write: FRUSTRATION, binary: confusion and frustration.
I am amazed at the tech developments in my life. Amazing! I don't have a home phone because I don't need one. I talk and see my sister in Pennsylvania through Skype. I text, email, share... you name it and I can probably do it through technology.
I am lucky enough to be married to a tech Geek and due to biology I gave birth to two tech Geeks. So our family of four owns: 3 laptops, 2 desktops, 3 ipods, 1 generic MP3 player (Yeah, I am that kind of mom. The kind that doesn't think you need an ipod until you can help purchase one!), 2 ipads, 1 smartphone, 2 dumbphones, and various other gizmos.
As a busy mom, wife, and student I try and use all tech to my advantage! I don't need or want to lug around a knapsack full of books! I LOVE, love e-textbooks! I love Dropbox, my laptop, my ipad, Cozi family calendar (I can text alerts... what mom wouldn't love that!) and ipad apps. The list could and does go on and on, but I think I made my point!
I admit that I can fall into a rut, tech or otherwise. It is a challenge for me to stay current. I like what I like and I tend to stick with the tried and true.
I find it amazing how dependent society is on modern technology. Im not against it per say, I think it has its place, but give me a pad of paper and pen any day. I dont like eBooks, I want to be able to feel the pages of a book in my hands. But what gets me is how some businesses have everything digital and should the power fail then they are up a creek. I love the vet i go to, you walk in and feel like you are back in the good ole days. They use paper files, in a filing drawer of all things. And remember card catalogs at the library? Kids today would have no idea how to use that. do they even teach the Dewey decimal system anymore? Sorry, didn't mean to go on a rant. I guess im just a bit old fashioned!
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