When
I was a youngster, I lived with my family in Brazil because my parents were
missionaries there. At first we lived in a major metropolitan area with “modern”
conveniences, but on my fifth birthday we moved to city in the interior of our
state. There was no telephone infrastructure – no one had a telephone in the
entire city of over 70,000 people. We got telephone service when I was eleven.
There was television service – one channel. Programs started at 4 PM and ended
at midnight. My parents decided not to bother with a TV, so the only time I
watched TV growing up was when we were on our short furloughs in the States. My
dad got his amateur radio license so he could communicate with our family here
in the States. When I came to the States for college, I wrote letters, since
there was no e-mail yet. Maybe because I felt I didn’t really know my stateside
family, I love the connections I can make with technology today. My son and his
family just got moved to California for his work. After being in the habit of
seeing my grandchildren every Tuesday, I love that I can connect with them via
e-mail (for details that need to be worked out), cell phone (to hear their
voices), and Facebook (for the pictures) whenever I feel like it.
I
usually do not feel the technology in my life is too demanding. Maybe this is
because the sales people aren’t allowed to use the cell phones like they use
the land line phones. I check my e-mail and Facebook every day, with my phone
if I can’t get on my laptop. I ignore my landline phone if I don’t recognize
the number on the caller ID or if I am busy and don’t want the interruption.
Since I don’t usually work outside the home, the amount of e-mail I get isn’t
unreasonable. My husband, on the other hand, uses his e-mail to keep up with
the demands of his job. If he is away from his laptop too long, his e-mail
fills up to the point where he can’t access it on his phone any more.
I use
technology for communication, as described in the above paragraph, and I use
the internet for research and shopping. I like to window shop when I have free
time, but mostly I would rather order the things I need from companies that do
business online and have my order delivered at my doorstep. In my genealogy
research, there are people who have transcribed old cemetery records and posted
them on the internet. Even if I had time and could find the cemetery, the
headstones would probably be unreadable for the records I want. This service is
invaluable to the genealogist. An engineering friend who works with my husband
told us a story about googling. He was in a hotel room and the thermostat wasn’t
working. He went online, googled the model of thermostat, and fixed it himself.
The amount of information available on the Web is amazing.
Alma,
ReplyDeleteI love your example of your friend that Googled the problem with the thermostat and found a solution even though he was in a hotel. I have a 12 year old washing machine and it works perfectly fine. It began to stop right before its spin cycle. It would fill and then never spin to the rinse cycle. My husband just wanted to get a new one. I even researched new washers and got the reviews to what the most cost effective version would be for our family. I didn’t have a good feeling about purchasing a new washer and didn’t want to call an hourly repair company to troubleshoot the problem. Rather, I decided to just Google my make and model and the phrase “won’t go into spin cycle”. I found that there is a simple $30 part that can go bad in that model and won’t let the washer go into its spin cycle. Sure enough my dad came over and helped my husband replace the part and now it works just like it always did. No new washer needed for this family thanks to Google and on-line shopping. Technology saved my family hundreds of dollars. Amazing what can be accomplished with a little faith and some technology.
Jacki
I too loved that example. Google and I have become very close over the past several years. In the past, my mom has accused me of being “engrossed” in my cell phone, mainly because I am trying to divert my attention from something else. However, it’s always funny when she asks me a question that I can’t answer and tell her to “hang on”. I immediately pick up my phone and google the question. There have been a couple of occasions when she gave a quick retort, “Oh, don’t let me interrupt your texting”, only to realize that I was actually trying to find an answer to her question. Then she feels guilty for being snippy and I have to admit that it’s always funny when parents recognize their own bad behavior. The internet offers an unimaginable amount of information. We simply have to keep it all in perspective and try our best to use it as intended.
ReplyDelete