Slice of Life, Chapter Seven

(This is part of the Slice of Life Project)

Not more than four years ago, I could barely turn on a computer and use anything other than MS Word. Today, my home seems littered with technological debris. It’s amazing how quickly the Revolution takes place.

This was brought to my mind last night as our older sons pitted my wife and I against each other in some tangled version of “Are you smarter than your spouse.” The boys were asking us trivia questions and my wife and I were expected to shout out the answer — the quickest answer got the point. My wife is much smarter than I am and quick on the draw, too, so I was down in the points column for some time (ie, forgot that the capital of Illinois is Springfield and I shouted out Thomas Edison for discovery of electricity — doh — too much pressure, I tell ya).

At one point, we were all unclear about a question and answer, and my wife told the boys to get a dictionary and look it up. Now, we have dictionaries all over the place (when both of your parents are educators, that will happen). But they looked at us as if we were some oddities from another planet.

“Let’s just Google it,” the older one said.

“No, get a dictionary,” my wife insisted.

They went into the other room and ostensibly came back with the dictionary, but later, I found my computer screen on Google, with information to the answer we were seeking. I guess they could not resist. The technology is there, so why not use it? (I imagine they thought if it this way and, well, why not?)

That’s when I glanced around my house and thought about all of the technology that we have and the world they are growing up in. What are we exposing them to?

So here is my Household Technology Inventory:

  • One Dell desktop computer (about 5 years old now but still running smooth)
  • One Dell laptop (mostly used for movie editing and for workshop presentations)
  • One XO laptop (my little green machine)
  • One Canon digital videocam
  • One Pure Digital flash video camera (the pocket-sized one)
  • Two digital cameras
  • Four MP3 Players (don’t ask)
  • One digital voice recorder
  • An assortment of flash drives
  • Plus, the usual array of microphones and speakers, etc

What about you?

Peace (in too much cool stuff),
Kevin

PS — I made a strong comeback in the trivia game, correctly getting the capital of Puerto Rico and the years that Franklin Pierce was president (pure guess). We celebrated by having the boys put away laundry. Mom and Dad were both winners!

5 Comments
  1. Love the idea of taking inventory of our digital tools. I am slowly emigrating to the digital world. On another note… laundry builds character:)

  2. Great story!

    My list?
    – one Gateway laptop (four years old, but still running nicely)
    – one Dell laptop
    – one iPod
    – one Lumix digital camera
    – four flash drives

    Not bad. I actually thought it would be shorter, but I can live with this!

  3. Wow! I can’t even begin to count all the digital tools. But I know our lives are very involved with their use. Amazing how much easier it is to look up words with Google that searching in a dictionary !

  4. A similar thing has happened to me. It is a revolution in the way of thinking about the access to information. Amazing..
    Here is my list:

    a MacBook (on the dining room table most of the time for quick access)
    an ipod
    a cell phone
    a MacBook pro in my husband’s office
    at least 3 flash drives between the two of us
    a cannon digital camera
    a printer

    We are very conservative about buying things.., but it seems like a necessity to each have a laptop at all times. Sometimes when my husband is working at his upstairs office and I am working at the kitchen table we email to communicate. (old fashioned I know… we should IM or Skype!)

    Janice

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