Does it Ever Blow Your Mind?

When I was a child, one of the frequent conversation topics with my dad was technology. My grandpa, his dad, died the year before I was born (1975) and my dad used to say (and probably still does say) that if his dad could only know what all had changed since he died, he wouldn't believe it. In the 80s it was satellite TV and VCRs, which seems a little dated now!

Someone gave me a bottle of water yesterday. It was one of those new "eco-friendly" bottles that feels like the plastic is a tiny bit thicker than plastic wrap. While I was drinking it I remembered the first time I bought bottled water. It was one day when my mom and I went shopping for a prom dress. We stopped at a gas station somewhere and I got bottled water. The plastic was much sturdier than the bottles are now and the lid wasn't plastic. It was probably aluminum. I remember because I kept the bottle for YEARS - I remember refilling it while I was in college!

The first time I knew the internet existed was in 1994. I went to a summer program called Arkansas Governor's School. It was at Hendrix College. The computer lab there had a bunch of Macs; they all had funny little screens. It wasn't that we checked out the internet, but (I was with 2 or 3 other girls) we chatted with "someone" who we gigglying gave false information to; we knew it could be someone in the same room as easily as someone across the country.

My first email address was my college email. I used to print off emails and I found a bunch of them a few months ago. I actually forwarded that Madeline Murray O'Hara email, printed it off and kept it! Although I used email regularly and had access to the internet in college. I didn't know how to use a search engine for a couple of years at least. Someone showed me altavista.com and I used it as my main search engine for a long time...probably until google came around!

Until I came to Miami, I thought cell phones were pretty rare. My parents had a car phone, but I wasn't prepared for Miami's ultimate (and almost univeral) fashion accessory! I've actually bucked the trend and only had a cell phone for about 2 years (i.e. the length of the contract) while I was teaching school. Recently, I got one of those pre-paid phones - the thing cost $15 and is a flip phone with a color screen! No camera though.

I know most 2nd born kids have less pictures taken of them than the first, but with Caleb the (digital) camera we used needed batteries and they were always running out. The camera we use now is part of a rechargable video camera, so I actually take A LOT more pictures of Annalise than I did of Caleb as an infant! Personally, digital cameras are currently my favorite marvel of technology.

So sometimes I like to think about what it was like for my grandpa. Sometimes I think it would be nice if there wasn't as much information on demand! It's kind of overwhelming to know all the world's problems!

And my kids, growing up in a post-9/11, youtube world, I wonder what all they will see...and if they could possibly imagine life any other way. I heard someone on the radio say the other day that people tend to imagine that all they know is all there's ever been. I think that's kind of a dangerous way to think.