Technology and Me

I was born nearly smack-dab in the middle of the previous century.

(Coincidentally, I was also born nearly smack-dab in the middle of North America. Although that doesn’t have much to do with the topic, it does go right along with the theme of “Smack-dab in the Middle…”)

Back then, there wasn’t much in the way of “high-tech” stuff. Telephone numbers had “exchanges” and if you wanted to place a long distance call you had to go through the operator. If you were away from home and needed to make a call, you would have to find a pay phone and also have the correct amount of money (in coins) on hand. Passenger airplanes had propellers and pilots sometimes navigated by looking at stuff on the ground. If a household had a TV at all, it was usually only one. There were no video games.

It wasn’t as if we had no “modern” conveniences… we had nearly all of them. There just weren’t as many of them then as there are today and they were nowhere near as complex. The invention of things like the transistor and the silicon chip eventually led to a veritable explosion in the consumer electronics market and for the most part, the new-fangled devices that came into being as a result, came along later in my life. I was never much on technology to begin with and when so many new things came about after I had reached the age where I was getting pretty comfortable with the old things… well… I became a little resistant to it all.

If I hadn’t gotten married I probably still wouldn’t have an answering machine. My cell phone would make you laugh… it’s getting pretty old, too. I wouldn’t even have it if I didn’t have kids. The only reason I got one in the first place was to be able to call someone if my car broke down and the kids were with me. I still rarely use it to receive calls. I only recently got caller ID for the home telephone.

The job I had for a quarter of a century did involve some major technological changes… fortunately I worked for the government. They were so far behind the times (and still are) that I only needed to speed up a little to keep pace.

Last week I bought a computer for the first time ever. Oh, we’ve owned several of them over the years, but my wife bought them all. I have learned to use them…

somewhat.
(I must confess that I have come to rely heavily on the use of email.)

The point I’m slowly getting around to is that for a person like me, who basically is way behind the technology power curve, this journey I am preparing for will be vastly different from most of my previous travels… because of technology. Before, when I would travel, my primary concerns centered around transportation, lodging, food and clothing. Now, in addition to those concerns, I am mulling over things like power converters, adapter cables, compatibility issues, digital image management, hotels with high-speed internet access, and whether or not there will be other accessibility options like Internet Cafes or Wi-Fi hotspots along the way.

Toward the end of my period of making frequent visits to Europe, I was able to pack for a two-week trip using only a carry-on bag. For this coming journey, it is beginning to look like I may reach my carry-on limit just with electronic gizmos.

I am going through a learning process here, and I am confident that I will eventually sort everything out and have the volume of equipment, as well as the associated plans for using all of it, down to a reasonable level. However, if I don’t succeed at that, this blog may wind up with a two-month gap in its posts.

Ahh… how well I remember the simpler life!