Generations, Technology, & Me

Generations, Technology, & Me

                The rapid advancement of technology has made an impact on nearly every person in our society in a positive way or negative way. Not long ago our homes had what we used to call “the phone” but now everyone has their own phone or an “iPhone”. Even how I am typing this essay is different from what my mom would have to do in college. Most of the people around her age had to use a typewriter which didn’t include a backspace key or a spell-check. This could create a society that is more accepting of mistakes as they are easy to fix now and they do not cause much discomfort while writing.

                Upon interviewing my mother she had similar thoughts saying that technology over the course of her life has made her life “more convenient and entertaining.” She went on to explain that growing up the biggest impact from technology came from the cordless remote and the Atari. The cordless remote is something we have always had access to but growing up during the release of this invention must’ve been life changing. Even today we can see pieces of technology become wireless and we can notice the ease in our life because of it. My mother also grew up in a time before the internet and things involved with the internet like e-mail. Now her job requires her to use a computer and she was somewhat forced to embrace this skill. Her job involves contacting beer companies all over the world so she is very skilled with e-mail and mass communication. She also handles the ordering of beer so she is very skilled with the company’s computer system. Microsoft Word’s Excel program is also a program that she was forced to learn and is now a part of her everyday life. It goes to show that even with the technology now we could in the future be forced to learn something that wasn’t even close to being possible with our technology today. Technology is always advancing and we are never sure where it might be applicable to our future.

                Technology now plays a pretty big role in my mother’s life. She now has a smart phone which she uses as an alarm to wake up for work, she uses Facebook which has reconnected her with long lost relatives. Technology is a big part of her work and her recreational time. Growing up without it, now she can’t seem to escape it.

                I was actually pretty surprised at my mother’s answer when I asked her what piece of technology surprised her or scared her the most. She said the satellite. It was this point that I realized her answer was surprising but it was an answer that made me realize how important satellites are. She went on to say how it’s pretty cool that they can take magnified pictures from space, pinpoint locations, and broadcast live events all over the world. The satellite’s ability to do this may seem incredible yet unnecessary but if you really think about it we would be lost without satellites. The ability to broadcast events allows news and information to be transported and distributed faster than ever before. Most of the news prior to technology that can communicate two individuals across far distances took weeks, months, or years depending on mode of transportation and distance. Our world moves much faster now and that may seem scary to some but it is a more efficient way of attaining information across vast distances. Pinpointing locations precisely is a very useful tool to our society for finding missing persons or predicting weather.

                My grandmother who was the second person I interviewed had similar things to say about how technology has appeared in her life. She hasn’t had to learn as much for work or anything but being older and witnessing more of a change, technology has made an impact on her as much as it did my mother, perhaps more. When she was my age, technology obviously didn’t have as much of dependency that it seems to hold today. She remembers the color TV coming out being the most exciting piece of technology to her. She said “everyone was anxious and excited to see something in color on the TV.” This seems somewhat silly to me because I grew up in the age where we were excited to go from huge TVs to ones that were very thin and had nice looking screens.

 We never had the opportunity to watch black and white television and to notice the change from black and white to color must’ve been life changing. My grandmother is an older lady and lives her life rather “old- school” so she is not that involved with technology and is not interested in learning anytime soon. She does have a cell-phone but it is a very older model and she uses it to call only. She also uses the TV regularly due to being retired. Most of the time she is just ordering things from HSN. She has committed herself to not using newer technology although she has stated recently that she wants to get internet service at her house and a small laptop. After asking her why I should’ve known the answer prior as she said, “So I can order from the HSN website. “ As previously mentioned, technology has not impacted her in ways that it has my mother but it has greatly affected her life and she has to make changes in order to do the same things she used to not long ago.

                The third and final person I interviewed had almost identical answers as my mother for the simple reason that their age is similar. She is the mother of my best friend and she was greatly impacted by the Atari and eventually the first cell phone. She said as a kid they only had “physical activity type games to play.” They would play outside and do things that kid’s today would consider exercise but back then it was just called fun. When the Atari came out it was a brand new experience for kids because it was a “game” but it was on a screen and they could play it inside. Technology would change their childhood forever. Maybe not as much as Vis Stone’s but they were greatly affected by this invention.

She also talked about how amazed she was when the first cell phone was released. She grew up having a cord phone in her house and now they had a phone that was able to call from outside the house and they could put it in their pocket. Technology has also forced its way in her life due to her job requirements. As an elementary teacher she has to be comfortable with making worksheets, using Excel for grades, and she has to be comfortable using e-mail.

                Both my mother and my best friend’s mother said that they could do without social media. They both have used it to reconnect with lost loved ones and relatives but they feel that people are misusing it and that is one piece of technology that we could do without.

                My grandmother had no opinion on technology that she is waiting for or things we could do without. I suppose she is only interested in technology that exists already and that is beneficial to her rather than anticipating future technology.

                Technology has an impact in everyone’s lives whether they embrace it, reject it, or are forced to become comfortable with it. Technology has moved in ways people could have never predicted and has taken a spot in lives of people who never would have thought it was possible.