My Technology History

Technological Journey

I was introduced to some kind of technology quite early as a child. I grew up with the old Odyssey system which pre-dated the Nintendo systems. It wasn’t anything flashy, but it was a computer that allowed my family to play games together, like Word Scramble, Tanks, and other games that put one person against another. While I can’t say I grew up with a great deal of technology, I feel comfortable with the learning curve of figuring something new out.
Later on, I would get my first real videogame system, Nintendo. It was a step up from the old one, but now I can look back and see that what was good for its age was still pretty simple. During a recent weekend at my boyfriend’s dorm, I asked him to play “Faxanadu”, which was a fun and unique game at the time. It’s a cross between the RPGs like Final Fantasy and an adventure game. I have very fond memories of my dad playing for weeks to finish the game. The problem is that after being so used to more modern technology, the game felt horribly clunky and stiff. I remember it being a lot more fun.
It wasn’t until I was in seventh grade that we finally got a home computer. I’d gotten a good introduction to computers at school with the ancient Apple 2E computers, which were basically used as word processors. The one we had at home, though, was one that we could play games on and had programs that I could play with. I’d gone from drawing on paper for hours to spending hours playing with the paint program to make pictures. I still very much love to hand draw, but it was interesting to be able to take another approach to the pastime that I’d always loved.
It took another few years before we actually got connected and ‘online’. Back then, the only real option was America Online and I found that there were so many more people out there that I’d never even thought about. I was suddenly drawn out of my own small town frame of mine and started talking with people of all ages from anywhere in the country. And I found that just like in real life, groups were formed and unique friendships came about as people spent more time online. I still remember being part of one chat room group that got online to talk just about every night and having some rivalry with another chat room that the people kept coming over to our room to cause trouble. While I still keep up with one or two people, it was a time that I enjoyed and every so often I wonder what happened to specific people through the years as we grew apart.
Little did my mom know, I did meet one of the people from the chat room. It was a bit awkward because we got along a certain way online and yet in real life it was almost too real. He and I still talk, but the whole online thing became suddenly real and I realized that I was connected to real people all over the place. In fact, my current boyfriend is one of those people that I met online. We met through some shared interests and if it wasn’t for this single piece of technology, we may never have found each other.
Our computer ended up being upgraded through the years from that first Tandy with Windows 3.1 to my current Dell that could hold the entire contents of my first computer on it like it was nothing more than a single file. With it, the games got more involved and now I actually have to find programs to translate my old games to the new system so that I can still play them.
Another small leap of technology happened when my mom got her first cell phone. It came with an interesting story in that my father became suspicious because he figured that nobody needed a private phone in order to talk to people. It was some lavish accessory that most people just didn’t need. I got my first cell phone when I was round 22, mostly because I wasn’t home enough or online (taking up the phone line) and it made things difficult while I was doing pet sitting for people. My first one was a prepaid Tracfone, which served its purpose until phone contracts and prices came down low enough that I could afford a phone plan with one of the major companies.
In an interesting twist, I picked out which phone I wanted and had to wait another day for my paycheck to come in. So I came back the next day and the phone that I’d wanted had already been replaced with the new model. It brought about another half hour of trying to figure out which phone I wanted and at that point, I’d end up with the newest and the best on the market.
Currently, I am surrounded by technology. I’m woken up by my digital alarm clock in the morning and I do my homework at my computer. While I’m at work, I deal with a massive database of information through filling prescriptions and billing for them in the pharmacy. After I get home, I usually check my email and personal pages. Then it is either watching television through our satellite or playing one of my many videogame consoles. As much as I miss the old days of being disconnected, I’m not sure how to go back to it. Every so often, I get a day to turn my phone off and watch TV, but I’m not sure if I could disconnect entirely from the world that we’ve created.