Tech-Savvy

It just occurred to me the other day that the world in which PK is being raised is quite a bit different from the world in which I was raised. Not just culturally or politically, but technologically. I was thinking about some of the techie things that I grew up with that PK will probably look at with great confusion. Here are some things that I grew up with:

1. LPs and record players
2. Magnetic tapes
3. Laser disc
   
4. Rotary dial phones
5. Floppy disks (both 3 1/2" and 5 1/4")
6. Dial-up modems
7. Cell phones the size of bricks
8. Monochromatic computer monitors
9. CRT TVs/monitors
10. Dot-matrix printers
11. Those "photocopiers" where the paper always smelled like alcohol (what are those called?)
12. Swiping credit cards with those imprint machines that used carbon paper
13. Using a crank to roll down your window
14. Taking forever to get an Internet connection because it took so many steps (remember that Trumpeter software?)
15. Bulletin Board Systems! (BBS)
16. The original Nintendo gaming system!
17. DOS
18. Rabbit ears
19. MiniDisc Players
    
20. VCRs
    

And some of the ubiquitous technologies in PK's life:

1. MP3 players
2. Buying media online (e.g. TV shows, music)
   
3. Streaming video
4. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites
5. Cell phones
6. E-mail (she'll never know a world that used inter-office memos or letters as forms of writing)
7. Web-based e-mail
8. Receiving e-mail on your phone
9. Instant messaging and Skype
   
10. SMS
    
11. USB flash drives that are small enough to fit in your butt crack
    
12. Cell phones that are small enough to fit in your butt crack
13. Free WiFi in coffee shops
14. Power locks, power steering, and power doors
15. Video game consoles
16. Owning more than one computer per household
17. Touchpads
18. Google (BTW, happy birthday Google!!!)
19. VoIP
20. Blogging
    

In this highly techie world in which we live, our kids will have no choice but to be tech-savvy to one degree or another. They will sure as hell be more tech-savvy than the people who were considered to be tech-savvy when I was growing up.

It's funny how people of my generation look at our parents funny when they talk about things like programming in assembler or COBOL, and having to use punchards for programming. And yet, I'm sure that PK will someday be looking at me funny, questioning all of the "old fart" technology that I grew up with, and laughing at the fact that I once programmed in an "ancient" language called Java.