Technology 500 years ago, and today!

                         

I came across this video clip at another website. So funny! But really, there are many people out there who are totally unfamiliar with technology, and they do need assistance figuring out what seems so simple to someone who has mastered it.

I don't claim to have mastered the technology now sitting at my fingertips, but when I look back at what I knew about the internet and computers as recently as two years ago, it's incredible to see what I have learned since then.

I have had to request help from Helpdesk many times at school, and then of course, here at aol, there are the aol service people.

I can remember the first time we bought a computer, when my son started middle school (about 1991), and we used it only as a word processor. It was an old dinosaur, a used one. I remember learning the program, how to save, move copy, change fonts, print, name files,  etc. 

Then, in June of 1997, we bought a brand new computer, and went online for the first time. I got to play on it for the summer, until my son took it with him to college. I had to settle for the dinosaur, which I had mastered by the time 2005 rolled around. That's when I purchased my own brand new HP computer and printer, and my husband paid for the online connection.

I remember how strange it all was in the beginning ... hot links, pop ups, surfing the net, junk email, saving favorite websites, creating files, and storing information I might need for all my areas of interest. Then I became aware of blogging, aol journals, reading them, and then creating my own (in the beginning I had named it ant farm analogies). It became a part of my daily routine. I'd go about my life, and anytime I'd have a question, I'd sit down at the computer, do a quick search, and find an answer. Since I had dial-up, searches took forever! I couldn't wait until high speed became available in our area.

With high speed, I could move about faster. Searches were quicker. School work was faster. I wasn't hesitant to click on icons and hot-links and find out where they took me. I sent out email to people I hadn't met in person, and I wasn't afraid to add people to my alerts.

The problem was that while I was searching, I'd find myself wandering from one topic to the next as new questions arose. I realized that I was wandering wherever my thoughts carried me (hence, the present name of this journal).

I'm more cautious now. Mostly, I've become accustomed to the finest people who journal here, and I understand why it is called a community. I enjoy the interactiveness and the connectedness of the process of journaling, reading other's journals and commenting, and reading and responding to the comments left in my own.

What I enjoy doing most is adding tags, pictures, and videos to my journal. I didn't know how to do that as recently as 18 months ago.

I do worry about the limitations of my computer, though. I don't know what adding videos to my journal, or those thousands of pictures and tags that I've saved on my computer will do to its performance. There is no doubt that since I first began this activity, downloads take longer. From time to time I do delete cookies, and clear the cache, and even defrag the hard drive. But if there is anything else I need to do to keep my computer running smoothly, and quickly, I don't know what it is.

If you'd like the link to this Norwegian masterpiece, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRjVeRbhtRU

 

Tags: Technology