Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Ah, life in these digital times...



Do you remember compiling mix tapes?  You know, when you’d record songs onto a cassette tape for playback on your walkman, or to blast in your car stereo?  Do you remember when the process to make a mix tape became a whole lot easier with the advent of the dual cd/tape recorder?  For that matter, do you remember when CDs came out?  And then personal computers, CD burners, and the inevitable death of said mix tapes?

I don’t consider myself to be of an advanced age by any means—although the big 3-0 keeps ticking a bit closer, and I feel more and more like an old fogy—but I have seen technology change at an incredible pace. 

I remember that the first DVD I watched was the James Bond flick: Tomorrow Never Dies.  I was blown away by the clear picture, but I quickly became wary of how easily the DVDs scratched.  I grew convinced that the whole DVD movement was a clever marketing scheme to compel consumers to re-buy DVDs that’d become unwatchable due to scratches.  I just knew that DVDs were a fad that would fade almost as quickly as it had risen up.  To prepare for what I saw as an inevitable decline in DVD popularity, I started stocking up on VHS movies.

Yeah, I haven’t seen a VCR in about ten years now, maybe even longer.  All those VHS tapes that I so lovingly collected have gone the way of so many technological advancements, now defunct.  It constantly amazes me how the times and technology change.

I was again reminded of those changes when my kids ran aground with one of their toys.  Now, as a bit of background: my kids are no strangers to technological advancements, and although they haven’t tried the ‘ipad’ swipe on books and magazines to turn pages, they’ve been thoroughly flummoxed when the television or computer screen didn’t respond to their touch. 

On this particular occasion, I realized just how far things had changed from when I was a kid.  My son and daughter were playing outside when they spotted a some interesting bugs.  After a several minutes of inspection with their naked eyes, they decided to pull out their magnifying glasses to get a closer look.  For a few minutes, they seemed confused with the circular glass encased in plastic.  They turned the magnifying glasses over in their hands a couple of times and finally held them up to my wife.

            “How do you turn this on?” My daughter asked.  She gave it a shake and suddenly noticed the distorted image through the glass.  (I’m not entirely sure why she didn’t notice it before, but alas…)

            “Oh never mind, I got it,” she said.  My daughter showed her younger brother how to turn his magnifying glass “on” with a quick shake of the wrist, and they ran outside to inspect the bugs.

            Ah, yes, life in these digital times.  It’s a constant reminder to get my kids out of the house to experience things that don’t have power switches.  And all the while, you can’t help but chuckle at the effect of all those changes on our lives.

--Derrick Hibbard