When I was their age...

While spending time with my children this past week, I have been reminded of how much technology has changed life today compared to when I was their age.

While reviewing some sight words with our 4-year old, I came to the word "will".  Our son looked at the letters and said, "That word is Wii.  I love to play the Wii."  I know I never made that mistake back then.

When attempting to explain how the nervous system works this past week, the best analogy I could use so the kids could understand was to compare the nervous system to email or texting.  If you touch something hot, your nerves will send an email to your brain that reads, "Fingers are burning."  Then the brain will text the fingers this note:  "Move before you permanently damage the epithelial tissue."  Our 7-year old replied, "The nervous system sends messages really quickly, doesn't it, Mom?"

Since our daughter has been emailing and skyping friends overseas, our 4-year old has been asking how long it takes for her emails to travel to Taiwan.  He also wanted to know if email travels through the air like sound waves.   I didn't ask such questions when I was his age.

Skyping with a friend in Taiwan

Without receiving any instruction from my husband or me, our children, by the age of three, had taught themselves how to log onto a computer, open up the internet, go to PBSkids or Webkins or any of the multiple educational sites to which we have subscribed, operate the mouse, and play games.  They could not read or spell, but they learned which keys to press and how to operate the mouse simply by watching us repeat the sequence many times.  I wasn't introduced to a computer until elementary school where there were a few Apple 2e desktop computers for the entire school to share.  We used arrow keys (since the mouse had not been invented yet) to play Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand.  Who remembers?

When I was their age, family time often involved sitting around an old CRT television (no cable, satellite, HD, DVD, orTiVo, but we did have color displays) watching The Andy Griffith Show, Hee Haw, or Love Boat.  While family time around here often involves the same board games we played back then or reading classic novels together, it also often involves new technology.  The kids enjoy playing the Wii, watching Netflix or gathering around an iPad 2 to play Angry Birds.

Family time with the iPad

Angry Birds

The amount of time I must spend on the computer each day overwhelms me.   When I first started using email, my goal was to have zero messages in my inbox by the end of the day.  A few years later, I allowed myself no more than 30 messages in my inbox by the end of the day.  Any more than that had to have been read, addressed and deleted.  By the time I got married, I allowed myself no more than 50.  After the kids came along, the goal was no more than 100.  Each year, I have continued to increase my limit. I am now at a point where I struggle to keep my inbox to less than 600 emails, and I spend more time on email than ever before.  Email, lesson plans, medical scheduling, banking, shopping, group calendaring, scrapbooking, studying, budgeting, bill paying, writing, working, playing - everything involves a computer.  Technology can so easily take over our lives that sometimes I REALLY want a break from it all.   Yet, when our internet service went out last week causing me to waste many hours and cell phone dollars on hold or dealing with Time Warner's customer support specialists (who know even less than I do) only to be told that our modem is dead (100% wrong assessment) and they could not send someone out until the following weekend to repair it, I felt as if a natural disaster had occurred.  The irony is amusing. There was the break from technology that I had been wanting, but it came at the wrong time, and it totally ruined my day. 

How can technology be so overwhelming yet so necessary?  This amusing video demonstrates how much people rely upon the internet.  Those interviewed said they would not give up the internet for one million, five million, 10 million, or even a billion dollars.    How much is the internet worth to you?