Okay, I've always considered myself pretty savvy with anything electronic or along those lines. I can program a VCR, wire my own stereo system, write computer programs, and work through a Microsoft issue on the computer...but I have realized, I am reaching that time. You know, that time when you are getting too old to keep up with the tech-life.
Sure, I can text, but it takes me FOREVER. I can even do it on the road while I am driving...(don't tell the cops!) usually finishing a 30 word (all written out, of course) essay by the time I have reached Tacoma. Then I watch my daughter whip messages back and forth like gun fire. It amazes me! There is even a special way to hold the phone/mobile so you can do it faster, I haven't mastered that at all. And, wait for this, I now know I am old...I don't want to. There is going to be a new carpal tunnel syndrome...something like text thumb syndrome or mobile wrist syndrome.
But I just can't get over the spelling! I went to school and even college so I could learn proper English, speaking or writing. Now all I see is Spktxt! Kids learning the quickest way to write, but is it grammatically correct or even spelled correctly? Heck no! Now, I just heard on the news that a school is teaching kids to write words and sentences phonetically...geez whiz, it's no wonder we rank so low on the education ladder. Can you imagine competing on a world level by text writing? Shudder to think so.
So I must say that I am keeping up as much as my deteriorating body can. I can still sit at a computer and work code and noodle out the Microsoft issues, but I don't think I'll ever get a laptop. Those little mouse pads kill me. So as things get smaller, more intricate and faster, I will continue to get bigger across my backside and try to keep up. :D
1 comment:
Touche, Honey...it's me. Men are proud to be able to build bridges, skyscrapers, and settle new civilizations. It makes a dad proud to know that while his children receive an education, it may not be the same education we received 20 to 30 years ago.
We have to now offer Ebonics and English as a Second Language courses. Imagine my amazed look when I told a person 11 years my junior that it was "a quarter to seven" and she looked at me and asked, "What time is that? I grew up in the digital world."
I thought about it just today that if our children want to go see a movie but don't know when and where the movie is playing, they pick up their cell phone and dial 411...that is if they aren't already on the Internet. When I was a kid, I never went to the movies without an adult...as in my parents and not a big brother...and the movie was reviewed by the scale of G, PG, and R...well before the whole PG-13 rating which would allow children to go to the movies without their parents and mom or dad could then drink an overly-priced coffee concoction at Starbuck's for a couple hours. Do children need "me time"??? If we didn't know where the movie was playing you would have to grab the Yellow Pages that was a good 3 inches thick and served well as a lift device to raise youngsters up to the level of the dinner table, and look for Theaters and then determine which theater to call, and listen to the recorded message. My favorite was when someone would hang up in the middle of the recording because they got their show times, so you'd have to listen to the rest of the recording, wait for the message to rewind and then start over at the beginning. Not playing at that theater??? Look up another number and listen to the middle of another recorded message. Sometimes you'd have to call the night before because flipping through the Yellow Pages could take a while. And if you didn't have a phone book the phone call to Information or Directory Assistance included dialing the area code and 555-1212 on a Rotary Dial Telephone with a pigtail cord that was continually knotted into a wad the size of your dad's bowling ball. Sometimes if you were on the line for an extended period of time, you were lucky to have one of those add-on pieces attached to the receiver that was supposed to help rest the receiver against your shoulder...an early-day hands-free device guaranteed to throw your spine out of alignment.
So here we are with children, trying to teach them right from wrong, and we're continually "dumbing-up" the requirements so that no child is left behind. I don't think it's the teachers' fault. I think it's on the parents' shoulders. Why can't a teacher maintain discipline and teach a class of 30 students? Because the students haven't been taught discipline at home. We've "spared the rod and spoiled the child" for so long that young children don't respect authority in the classroom, on the playground, out in public, or in the workplace, and now we have to bring the bar down to the point that no child can be left failing a class. And when it's time for chores, it's so unreasonable to ask them for doing a little bit to help out around the house, and "Susie doesn't have to do chores at home, and Billy has an iPod, Jimmy has a Blackberry, why are you so strict???"
I need to call Dr. Phil for that answer. Let's see...I need my 13 year-old to dial 4-1-1 for me, but I can't interrupt her. She's doing her homework.
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