There is a rotary telephone at my family's beach house. It is avocado green and completely epic. I should also mention that, while we've gone through three or four cordless phones on a separate jack, that rotary phone still works just fine (well, unless you get to an automated system because clearly you can't press one or whatever).
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But anyway ...
Belle is a pretty technologically savvy kid. She knows how to operate an iPod, a television, a DVD player, a VCR (which Henry informed me that some of his high school students can't accomplish), a computer (in fact, she's pretty well-versed with PCs, which we have at home, and the Macs she uses at school), and a sno-cone machine.
She also passed "The Moron Test" on my iPhone, which had me stymied (I was a little embarrassed ;-)).
But today, when my mother asked her to call a family friend to see if she wanted to join us for dinner, it was Belle's turn to be stymied.
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She figured it out eventually, of course, but it struck me pretty deeply how this kid who can navigate touchscreens couldn't figure out how to use a telephone circa ... well, I was born in 1976, and there are pictures of me as a baby with that phone in the background.
We talk about the technological advances of this day and age, but it's unfortunate in some ways that we've sort of lost the technological wonders of the past. I don't know if I'm just nostalgic here, or if it's worthy of concern that kids today can program computers but aren't able to gather reliable information from a book (I'm talking about when it's not all done for them, a la Wikipedia).
We had a little dinner party for Addie's graduation tonight, and her friend asked me a question (a really good question) about Harry Potter (since, according to Addie, I know everything there is to know about Harry Potter ;-)).
I did not know the answer to this particular question (basically, "What the hell happened to Harry's paternal grandparents, who couldn't have been all that old since he was in his twenties when he was killed?"), so I did what I always do in those situations ... I took out my iPhone and Googled it. I got the answer (which I'd tell you, except it's easy enough to Google ;-)), but I also wondered what would have happened if I hadn't found it right away.
Yeah, being me, I probably would have reread the books.
But I had to think about that for a second. What WOULD I have done? I can remember the days before the interwebs sliced its virtual highways around the earth, and I can remember being a pretty resourceful kid, but ... I cannot remember what, in that situation, I would have had for options.
Scary stuff, if you think about it.
If you hand a kid a cassette tape, an Atari joystick, heck, even an EZ-Bake Oven, they'd look at you like you were crazy. Actually, they'd look at you like Belle looked at us as she tried to figure out how to operate a rotary telephone.
Do you have any great stories about the technologically advanced youth of today being flummoxed by things that were simple to us at one point in time?
Oh, and do you think that letting the technology that came before, that paved the way, should be forgotten? (I mention this because I never heard of an eight-track until I was in college and was dating a guy with an eight-track player ... I thought it was the coolest thing ever and wondered why my musical scope was limited to LPs, cassettes, and CDs)
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I'd love to watch a kid try to set up a film strip or a movie projector. Both of those things were standard equipment in the 70s, but would baffle most people today.
ReplyDeleteI had my daughter's birthday party at a movie theater, and a tour of the "projection booth" (so to speak) was included. It's all digital ... I was so let down. I had always wondered what it was like up there, what the people did while the movie played, and so on ... finding out that nowadays there really ARE no people ... it made me tremendously sad :-(
DeleteIt's fun to see all the stuff in my basement that was truly cutting edge at the time it first came out. I even have a walkman with a speaker because no one could deal with one with only earbuds. I still remember when a computer could only play Oregon Trail and Sargon Chess. We could type up our essays too but you had no spell check. Those were the good times. I am glad I have stories to tell kids today who would DIE if the power went out all over the world.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm the happy medium I think. I remember how to use a rotary telephone, and I'm not too bad with the new technology, though it is going to leave me behind soon I think. There are examples of old people who do great with the new tech though, like Stephen Fry. I do remember a story of when I was about Belle's age and in my first ever year of school. The teacher was going to show us a video, except she couldn't work the VCR. I programmed that baby right there and then. I think I was also the only kid there who knew how to do it. I don't think we should forget the past technology though, if only to see how far we've come. Also I've just re-read Harry Potter and I can't tell you a thing about his paternal grandparents except that they were muggles on his mother's side. I'm not sure they were ever mentioned actually. So now I'm going to have to find out.
ReplyDeleteKLo -
ReplyDeleteWhat great observations you made. My paternal grandfather was born in 1898 and died in 1970 when he was 71 years ago (before his 72 birthday). I was 18 at the time. I remember thinking at the time he was born before the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk and died after men walked on the moon. I thought back on the technology he experienced in his life time.
When I read your article I realize your are younger then my son and a year than my daughter. So much that was developed when I was growing up, they accept as being normal. Their children are more advanced than they are.
It is really amazing to see how fast new technology is developed. I still enjoy AM radio. Don't even own an iPod (which I understand is considered antique) and my phone just makes phone calls. I take that back it can also text which I find amazing.
We have cameras in the sky and cameras on poles so any place we travel, we can be seen. George Orwell's 1984 is with us. It concerns me more than it concerns the younger generation, I know what it was like when the communication system in the 50's was a parent yelling your name in the front yard to come in for dinner. Today they call on the cell phone or send a text.
Life was simple in the 50's, it was new in the 60's. War was a fear in the 70's when I was in the service and my children were born. Before I knew what happened, year 2000 was here and gone and now I am wondering if I will ever be able to retire.
One day life was carefree and no worries or problems. You wake up one day three generations behind and not sure what the gadget is the kids today are using.
I became an old "coger". Do not even remember being in the cocoon and breaking free. Life is wonderful and every moment is new.
I guess I would not have any other way, not even removing my tattoo and headed to the beach without my swimming suit.
Jim
My kids know how to operate some old stuff, like books, because I've shown them, but I can't think of anything that has totally floored them.
ReplyDeleteYour post reminds me of a scene in Aliens in the Attic where the little girl tries to dial on one of those rotary phones.
We can laugh at them, for not knowing how to use old tech, but would we be any better with things our parents and gradnparents used, like a mangle?