Technology

The Jetsons was one of my favorite cartoons when I was growing up. I remember watching it and thinking all the stuff was so cool and would be out of this world to actually exist. Of course I believed it was magic and that I'd never see any of it in real life. Other than the flying cars, I think the rest of it has been created and in many cases surpassed today.

Having a technology degree, I learned to not be afraid to try things when it comes to gadgets. This year I finally took the plunge and got an iPhone and iPad. But if it weren't for my teenager, I'd have no idea how to use them. Today's technology operates in a much more  intuitive fashion than the antiquated structure I learned. It amazes me what is available today.

I can remember being on a church youth group trip where this older guy told us cassettes were going to replace 8 track tapes. We scoffed a him and told him he was crazy. 8 tracks were the bomb because they replaced records. NOTHING was going to replace 8 tracks. Hmmh... It's a good thing I didn't place any wagers on that.

In the span of about 100 years, we have gone from the phonograph to Pandora. We have gone from computers the size of buildings to the size of a credit card. The last car I got I had to have a 45 minute training session just to know how to drive it off the lot. I just know one of these times when I press a button it's going to launch me into outer space!

Today I got the pleasure of working with Tony's Mom in trying to teach her how to use the Internet to read her Caring Bridge entries. She is classic old school when it comes to technology. She doesn't have a rotary phone at home anymore, and has finally figured out how to get the messages off her cordless answering machine. To say she is gun shy when it comes to gadgets would be an understatement.

Between Jennifer and I, I think we got her going. We wrote everything down so she can just follow a script. She has the "if I mess anything up, I just shut it down" procedure down pat! She'll soon be computing circles around us and will forget all about the reservations she started out with.

Technology can have the best of purposes, but it can also be severely abused. I've been a cyber stalker of Cassidi for the past few years to ward off any of those types of problems. I look forward to college next year so I can gain back all that time! I know she will appreciate the "privacy" even more. I've always thought it was quite funny when she thinks there is any possibility of privacy on the World Wide Web!

I can't even imagine what the future will hold for gadgetry. I'm sure my grandchildren will be teaching me a trick or two in a few years. It'll probably be to trade in my fancy pants car with all the buttons for my fancy pants space ship to join The Jetsons.