I'm 80 and On The Internet!!!

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Added: Wed Sep 19th 4:20pm
Posted in: Technology

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Well, here I am doing something I never dreamed I'd do. I'm joining a social network site on the internet. I'm still having a hard time understanding just what the internet is. In my day, if you couldn't feel it, touch it, or build it, it didn't exist! I'm not really sure how all this information ends up on my computer here but it certainly is an amazing thing.

I'm 80 years old. When I was born you were doing pretty good if you had a Model A Ford. You were a big shot if you had a telephone and you were pretty well off if you were able to go to college. People always ask me how we lived without things like air conditioning, microwave ovens and cable tv and I have to admit, it's even hard for me to remember! But we didn't know any better so we didn't miss anything. That's a lesson I wish people would remember today.

I often wonder if all these electronic gadgets and gizmos have really made things better. Oh, it's amazing when you think of all the advances we've made. I probably wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for modern medicine, but so many conveniences have tended to isolate people.

Yes, the internet connects you to the world, but you have to go in your room by yourself and shut everybody else out to log in! I still don't know how a tivo works but I could watch shows all day! Seems like I'm always shushing somebody! That's just not right.

My grandson could play on the computer and his video games all day everyday. I really do think we've lost a lot of our culture because we don't have dinner conversation anymore. We don't tell stories to each other. When we want something we always think "buy" and never think "build".

Understand, I don't want to come across as a whiner, but I do feel a loss for the way I was raised. It's another world these days. But a world I'm glad I have the chance to experience.

I didn't mess with computers much for recreation until I retired. I'm stunned at all the information right at my fingertips. You could spend months at your local library and still not find what you can google in 1.32 seconds!

Technology is a good thing and the things we enjoy today are nothing short of miraculous, but I hope that somebody somewhere remembers our country grew up on human contact and human relationships. We used to work with our hands instead of our minds. We used to connect to each other instead of connecting with our things.

I love what we have today. I just hope we remember how we progressed to invent them!