Technology

Technology is great.  I've had a love affair with technology ever since I got my first manual typewriter.  I used to pound out stories about my family on that old Remington typewriter that someone gave me.  It wasn't until I was in high school that I got an electric typewriter, and I'd never even used a computer until I was in college.

The journalism department at WT had one big-screen computer and six or eight smaller Macintosh computers with tiny, tiny screens.  It was hard enough writing news stories on that early version of the widely popular Apple Macintosh computer.  Just imagine trying to lay out the entire newspaper on those dinky screens!  We fought over who got to use the  big-screen computer, which we affectionately referred to as "Big Mama."  I loved Big Mama!

The smaller Macs were named after characters from "Leave It To Beaver."  We had Ward, June, Wally, Eddie, Lumpy and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.  That's how we kept track of which computer our stories were stored on.  I managed to borrow the computer from my office so I could work on editorials and last-minute stories in my dorm room instead of another all-nighter in the newsroom.  Then, in my senior year, I got my own personal computer: a portable Mac.

That was 1990.  Fast-forward 25 years to today.  Technology has  exploded.  Everyone has at least two or three devices with them at all times so they can make phone calls, check e-mail, post status updates on Facebook and follow others on Twitter.

In my small room at the nursing center, I have a table full of electronics and gadgets, everything from a laptop and iPad to a printer and several radios.  I have a WiFi radio that lets me listen to stations and streaming music from around the world, and I can watch movies on demand with my Roku device.  I'm surprised I haven't blown a fuse with all the gadgets I have plugged in.

Thank God for all the advances in technology that make things more convenint and make life a little easier.  I'm actually typing this post on my iPad while I lay comfortably in my bed (Actually, I'm retyping this post after I accidentally deleted the whole thing!)  I'm thankful for all this modern technology, even though to this day I still don't own a cell phone!