It's a High Tech Life

My 21st-century technology:


I adore my I-Pod Nano. I can download songs for a minimal charge. Any song I want (provided it's in the I-Tunes catalog). Current hits and old favorites. I hardly buy CDs anymore, mostly because I have no more storage space, but also because I like the idea of not having to spend $15.00 for a whole CD. Especially if there are only one or two songs from that I like from the CD. I now can spend 99 cents for each of the songs I like.

I like my digital camera. It's light-weight and easy to use. Just download the photos to my computer and print out on photo paper.


I think my Mac is brilliant. It's so intuitive and easy to use. The sleek white acrylic flat screen, wireless keyboard, and egg-shaped wireless mouse exemplifies high-tech design, of a quality suitable for a MOMA exhibit.


My 20th-century technology:


I still have all my records: 33 1/3 LPs and 45s. The album cover art is something that has gone by the wayside with the advent of audio cassettes and CDs. Now, digital music is all about the music. A completely different way of experiencing music. The nostalgia of albums, record stores, and the rock and roll experience is something only Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers can savor as the world goes digital.


I have my dad's camera collection. Old SLR cameras. They're gorgeous examples of mid-century design and how we experienced light and image. I took a photojournalism course in college and remember the detailed process of adjusting F-stops, flashes, and all those rolls of film.



I don't have my electric typewriter or my word processing machine or even my first Apple computer anymore. I first learned to type on a manual typewriter. I even won an award for being the fastest typist in my high school class; although that was not as cool or prestigious as getting a varsity letter jacket for basketball or making the National Honor Society. I don't miss using a typewriter. I sometimes wonder how I made it through two bachelor degrees using such primitive technology. By the time I got my master's in the late 1990s, we had these lovely personal computers, electronic databases, the World Wide Web, and other technologies that 21-century students couldn't imagine being without.


It's a high-tech life now, and the only thing is to enjoy the ride. Or get left behind.


Namaste.