Things are definitely changing fast.
I have always tried to embrace technology. I enjoy novelty, regardless of usefulness. I can remember my first computer - a ZX81 purchased from WH Smiths. You couldn’t do anything with it really other than try to learn BASIC. Soon the specialist magazines were filled with programs for it that made simple things more complicated (in a desperate search for justification). I just enjoyed playing.
Then, as technology developed, usefulness started to really kick in. Wordprocessing and mobile phones arrived for the masses (yes, dear reader, I am old enough to be able to remember the frightening Dark Ages - I can even remember black & white television). The Amstrad PCW revolutionized my life. I had written three books and one very long dissertation on manual and electric typewriters. When I completed my fourth magnum opus, the process was quicker, and the paper, ink, and typp-ex bill was considerably reduced. Editing was a breeze.
A similar development took place with the arrival of the Internet. Initial novelty (and frustration) followed by increasing usefulness and indespensability. (Can you imagine going back to a time without email?) The arrival of smartphones and notebooks has considerably helped the integration of the Internet into an almost 24/7 experience for some people.
It has struck me that in recent months I have moved into a post-strictly-usefulness phase that has opened up new vistas of pleasure. I am again using technology to play. However, the advances of hardware and software have added a level of sophistication that is light-years away from playing on the ZX81.
I am now communicating regularly with many more people in a variety of ways, simply for the pleaure of being human and being a social animal. In the past week I have bumped into, and had good conversations with a couple of people via Google Chat; I have followed what a relative has been up to via Facebook; I have had an important work conversation via Skype; I have followed the postings of many new friends on Twitter (and actually taken a day’s holiday to meet up with a group of new Twitter friends). And now I am sitting in Caffe Nèro writing this blog on my iPhone while waiting for a mobile phone call from my wife.
No, this doesn’t feel obsessive or intrusive. I still have a job and a normal social life. It is just that when I have idle moments during the day and nothing at hand to read, technology is breaking down barriers to communication. And human beings are social animals.
Things are changing fast.
Good to see that you wrote the post on your iPhone.
Yes, I agree with all of what you have said.
I admired a ZX80 in a shop window, played with a friends ZX81, bought and programmed a Spectrum, played with my brother’s CPC464, enjoyed a C64, moved to an Atari ST, got a little more serious with an Amiga, finally got to a PC with a 486, then really started to get in to this with various PC’s until my heaven was reached, my Macbook.
During all of these phases I made sure that I would learn something, especially programming and logic which is where my education would ultimately lead. That then specialised to Excel where I am often found programming complex macros to produce meaningful information from lists of downloaded data.
Without all of the technology behind me I wouldn’t be where I am today. And things continue to move on, with my iPhone being the one thing alongside my wife and children I never leave behind!
Thanks for a great post. Made me think of my technology history with a smile on my face.
Andrew Forde
The ZX days were exciting weren’t they. I used to write statistical programs for the ZX Spectrum that I wouldn’t understand now. I must admit that the experience of the iPhone has been nothing but pleasurable and positive and has me seriously thinking about doing the unthinkable and abandoning my PC for a Mac at some stage.
I ‘lost’ my iPhone for an hours last week - I had left it on the sideboard at home and arrived at work to discover that I was without it. A truly nasty time
All I can say is go for a Mac. Seriously. I have owned and used a huge number of PC’s over the years and my Macbook is by far the best device I have ever used.
It is simply the most stable platform I have worked on and is so well thought out that is amazes me how far Windows has to come to get close.
I still use Windows in my working life and consider myself an Excel power user. However I love the integration on the Mac, how everything fits together to give a logical workflow, whether for fun or work requirements.
Wow, you wrote that on your iPhone!! Fab. Can’t wait to get mine.
I remember being amazed by the PCWs - I wrote my u/g dissertation on one of those in the University library.
I have used email on a regular basis since about 1993 I suppose although only at work initially. We only got an internet connection at home in about 1997 and I only got broadband six or seven years ago. Everyone must have felt so far away before then. It’s hard to remember.
I cannot imagine being without my MacBook. But like you, all this new stuff doesn’t take over my life, it just fills in the odd bits of time when I would probably be daydreaming.
Can’t wait to get my iPhone!
We seem to have run parallel lives, at least as far as computers go.
I remember my first computer too. Eagerly unwrapping the ZX80 that nice Mr Sinclair had sent me, and frantically plugging it in to the nearest black and white TV. Such excitement at having a REAL computer in my hands - and a whole 1k of RAM to practice running programs that would do exciting things like print “Hello World” onto the screen a hundred times.
Only 50,000 ZX80’s were sold, and apparently they can now fetch quite high prices from collectors. Will have to dig mine out from the attic - I could be rich!
I later graduated to the Spectrum+ - with 48k of RAM, real rubber keys and a tiny heat printer which produced print-outs on shiny silver paper. Wow! Even better, you could connect it to a cassette player to save all your programs and data.
Then there was my green-screened Amstrad PCW. It felt like a real business machine, although I used it purely for my own amusement, writing some fairly sophisticated games in BASIC. Playing the stockmarket was my favourite.
In 1997 I finally got my first PC. The thrill of connecting to the Internet for the first time was amazing - so much information, so many possibilities.
Since then the Web has changed beyond all recognition of course, and is changing ever faster by the day. But I’m just as enthusiastic as I was twelve years ago - and still get a huge buzz signing up to the latest service such as Twitter.
I’ve recently re-connected with my family via FaceBook, and now feel much closer to them. As with you, technology is certainly breaking down my barriers to communication!
Reluctant Blogger
It does seem strange now to even contemplate a world without the internet. It would feel very disconnected. You will love your iPhone when it comes.
WiseCat
The shiny silver paper! Ah yes, it brings it all back. What was the shiny silver paper all about? It seems so absurd now. It does seem that we have travelled parallel computing journeys. I’m glad that you too are enjoying the ride and the greater connectedness. (Thanks for the Twitter link, by the way.)
I am glad you enjoy technology, and that the constant change doesn’t bother you.
It bothers me, not in the sense that I hate it, but in the sense that I know that I have the ability to keep pace, but I don’t, so I feel guilty.
I sometimes envy those people who are so sure they aren’t smart enough to master this or that. I know I can’t, but I am sick and tired of learning new stuff, when it comes to technology.
In general, perhaps due to chronic depression, I have a hard time with changes of any kind. I don’t like change. Technology isn’t an exception. But, I suppose, I have reached my place of comfort. Just because things are out there, I don’t have to use them, but if I have to, I go ahead and get into it.
For example, due to travel, I’ve been using Skype for a while, and to communicate with relatives abroad, I’ve chatting for years. Yet, I refuse to use all the capabilities of the cell phone, and I still don’t want to have a palm pilot.
In sum, I am lazy, and I admire you for tackling all the stuff.
Lorena
For me it is not something that I ‘have to do’ in order to keep up. I’m just a little kid who enjoys playing with new toys. Give me a new gadget of a piece of new software and you’ll keep me happy for hours!
I often hear a lot of comments about how technology is making our nation less social and it couldn’t be any further from the truth! Used appropriately, all this new tech is only bringing us together. Blogging, twitter, myspace, etc are only encouraging socializing. Sure, I suppose some people are stuck in their virtual realities, but for most of us with real jobs and responsibilities there is nothing nicer than sitting down at the computer (or via a smart phone) and know someone is on the other side ready to have a conversation. Btw, it is hilarious hearing about your and the other commenters talking about their first computers…it puts my own age/experiences into perspective!
DB
Thanks for dropping by. You were obviously born after the Computing Dark Ages. I envy you, as you are likely to be around longer than I am to see how the future develops.
I heard the other day that when novels first got popular, the Victorians were concerned that people were spending too much time and money on books and were neglecting their families. Nothing changes, does it.