The place: Primary school.
The times: My sister and I would walk to school without supervision, I'd promptly throw my vegemite sandwich in the bin, sing some Locomotion to myself and wish I'd brought my new walkman to show my friends, and play elastics during playtime. We spoke in full, words like 'application' and 'oh my god' and when something was funny we just laughed without warning each other we were about to laugh out loud.
The highlight of the school day back then was technology, because it was a novelty. And with one computer per classroom and a roster for using it to play games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? who could help but fall in love with computers? Here's a little reminder:
See that little Apple Macintosh on the right? We had one as our first home computer, and it came with a program that taught us things like 'what is an icon?' and 'how to double click', and yes the whole thing took as long as that game demo to load. I probably wasted minutes upon minutes of my life waiting for computers to load programs. Oh, the horror.
The place: High school.
The times: Life was in the detail - who's going out with who, how you did on your maths exam and oh my god (yep, it was still three words) can you believe what she's wearing? I spent all evening on the phone to people I'd just spent the day with at school, until Mum told me repeatedly that it was time to hang up and do my homework. There was a new release Bon Jovi CD blaring from one room and Nirvana from another.
This is when the real technology addiction began, with the onslaught of a little thing called The Internet. Back then people were saying things like this:
My school was connected to the internet in 1994 and we would spend lunchtimes - using the one computer in the entire school that was connected - looking up pictures of Jon Bon Jovi and Brad Pitt. I don't think we quite knew what else to do with it, until computer classes taught us we could email people on The Other Side Of The World. Amazing. (And I say that with all sincerity. I mean, I still don't understand how a fax machine works, let alone email.)
The place: Home.
The times: I'm a mum now and I work from home and chase after a toddler. Life is now all about information - it's everywhere. As The Beatles (what? I've gone back to the classics, OK?) sing from the little machine in the corner of the room I read stories aloud and play blocks and push swings. Life is fast and everything is abbreviated.
These days, our computers are rarely switched off. And if they are, there's no need to panic because we can still be in contact via our smart phones. You know technology has come a long way when it's this accessible to little people:
The old Apple Macintosh has come a long way
The thing with modern day technology addiction is that it's expensive to keep up with - the computer, the game consoles, the phones and iPads and printers, TVs and good cameras. I've had my computer for three years and it looks like a slow, clunky old thing compared with the new ones. My camera is six years old and it's in
Luckily there are options, and this is one well worth exploring: renting technology. For example, the option to rent a laptop is great, especially when money's a bit tight and you're struggling to save up for your next purchase.
RentSmart has lots of options for rental from PCs, Macs, cameras, printers, iPads (yes please!!) and more - and you can shop at your favourite tech retail outlet and pay a fixed monthly hire fee.
Too easy! Find out more at RentSmart's website here.
Nothing like that existed back in my day...
What are your memories of technology as a kid?
[Disclaimer - this post was provided in collaboration with RentSmart. But these are my own opinions.]
11 comments:
I love this post. I also loved 'Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?
Our school didn't get the internet before I graduated. I had to work it out for myself during my first year at uni. It absolutely drove me crazy and I remember thinking I'd never work it out. I couldn't get a handle on following all the hyperlinks and could never find the original page I opened.
Now, I honestly couldn't live without it.
I used to love 'Where in the World is Carmen San Diego' too!! Maybe we should start a club.
I can remember when walkmans were the best! Then the cd version (not sure what they were called?). Now everyone has an their itunes account.
I can remember when the internet first came out, it was still easier to look things up in books and enyclopedias - and remember the sets of encyclodpedias that took up sooooo much space on the bookshelf?!
xo
My first introduction to computers was in Grade 2 or 3 playing Mr Plod. I think that was his name! We've definitely come a loooong way since then! :)
I was also a bit late to the whole internet thing. I figured it was something that wouldn't hang around, so I wouldn't have to bother learning it!! Ha!
I remember Carmen! My girlfriend who was a teacher actually made me dress up as Carmen and come into her class to role play. Yes we're still friends.
And RentSmart? Love them - best way to invest in technology for your business.
Waiting half an hour for the awesome Atari 64 to load up and - heaven fobid - playing in the meantime) so we could play us some Bubble Bobble!
:-)
I loved Carmen san diego! Is there a similar one today?
My fave in uni was Command and Conquer and Lara Croft on the PC :)
My school didn't have computers, of course that was way back in the 60's. We had typewriters, but only in classes of those doing the "secretarial" courses.
I remember being able to rent things such as TV's, from Radio Rentals, and I believe you could also rent fridges and washing machines. When the contract ran out you could pay a small fee to buy the item you'd rented forever, or upgrade to a newer model and keep the rental plan going. Often you'd rent a TV for so long you'd end up paying much more in rent than the TV cost in the first place.
Way back in the dark ages we didn't even have photo copiers at my school. Computers? One family in the whole town had one... you needed a cassette player to attach to it.. or something. Out family TV was black and white. Our phones had cords, and a dial, with holes for you finger turn the dial.
EVen when I was at uni it was still acceptable to hand assignments in hand written. None of us had email - except my hubby, but then he also talked about this weird thing called the world wide web... what ever that was.
A friend also had a mobile phone. She carried it in it's own suitcase!
How things have changed! Thankfully... I think!
I loved my double cassette player. My first tape was the bangles, and how excited i was to press play.
But something that amazed and but confused me immensely was the good old fax machine. I would constantly hound my Mum with questions such as ' how does the paper get to the other machine, tunnels under the ground'? This went on for days, if not months!
Oh thanks for the walk down memory lane!! I remember the old old computers!! And typewriters!! heheh - my kids probably don't even know what they are!
I love this post. I was thinking about these things the other day while talking with a twenty-something co-worker. It even prompted my blog from yesterday about how birthday celebrations change as we get older.
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