Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Converted
It's not easy to admit this but I am officially writing this on my mum's iPad. I am on the couch watching a rather ordinary Tom Hanks movie and holding onto hope that it will get better. A week or two ago we got foxtel IQ, at least I can fast forward the bad bits. Technology is not THAT bad.
Monday, October 4, 2010
ipad fever
Over the weekend my mum (who has never used a computer before) became the proud new owner of an ipad. Why? Who knows! My darling mother, in my opinion, is good at most things. When it comes to cooking she’s a star. I don’t know if the passion is there to make her the best star in the sky, but she has many skills which I appreciate on a regular basis. Mum’s main cooking skill is her ability to toss all the left over’s from the fridge into one dish, add some egg and milk around it, put it in the oven and call it quiche. Most of the time it’s brilliant.
Another skills of mum’s is problem solving, with a little bit of stress rash on her neck mum can fix almost any day to day problem, she has juggled three demanding daughters and my dad who might aswell be a child too at times. Now she juggles a house hold with grown up children and children in laws who refuse to fly the nest (at least on a long term basis). Mum designs houses in a flash as she scribbles floor plans on glad bake with such ease. She comes up with designs that are so great she has a team of builders, tilers, electricians and other tradies constantly in a state of impressed shock.
Anyway, you get the picture. The point to this babble is to say that she has many talents however technology is not one of them so why start now? According to answers.com the first PC was made in August 1981. I can remember my dad bringing home our first family computer when I was about six. This means mum has had access to a home computer for around 17 years. In this time, despite the constant teasing and many conversations going way over her head, good old mumma K has never even shown an interest in turning one on. My grandmother commenced using computers about 12 years ago as she got into Photoshop, from that moment on all our birthday and Christmas cards featured our faces superimposed into green fields or stuck on top of some random's face in a far away destination. She called these masterpieces granny graphics. At the peak of her computer passion my grandmother offered to assist my sister with her uni assignments on computer stating that she would have them done “easy as pie”. This may have been helpful and not condescending if my sister wasn’t studying to be a graphic designer! (My grandmother is another story for another day!)
So why is it that we are experiencing a technology invasion? Iphones are everywhere, even I am trying to justify purchasing one. People are starting to genuinely believe they need things which they clearly don’t. Pretty much my mother now has a $1000 photo album to take to sewing. Technology is taking away so many of life’s treasures. I loved looking through photo albums with my Nan. How are we going to explain this to our grandchildren “now deary I would like to show you photos of our family history however my ipad became obsolete 40 years ago and I never learnt to back up so our family history went down the drain when my battery died”.
I just don’t understand or appreciate this huge tecnology take over. They are always making something new and it's a constant battle to keep up with the times! For all my teasing, I liked that mum looked in a cook book rather than printed something off a web site. Now she can just google I feel sad for the pages in cook books that go unturned all over the world thanks to computers. Personally for me I like the clutter that comes with being behind the times. I enjoy having my big red diary and pen, a gps, a camera, a phone and an ipod in my handbag. Having a device that could do all these tasks in one would ruin the fun and make me look far less official!
So mum, if your ipad now leads you to start blogging and you come across this, remember the good old days of paper, pens, printing photos and CD's. You are one of the only oldies left behind the times, in a land where there were no computers. I like that you refused to conform and I hope your ipad does not mean that your cook books will sit unopened and our photo albums unloved. I hope you still do Sudoku once a week when they come in the paper rather than letting your ipad have all the fun. Mostly, I beg you, stay off Facebook!!!!!!! It’s bad enough having a mum with cooler toys than me let alone have everyone knwo about it!
Another skills of mum’s is problem solving, with a little bit of stress rash on her neck mum can fix almost any day to day problem, she has juggled three demanding daughters and my dad who might aswell be a child too at times. Now she juggles a house hold with grown up children and children in laws who refuse to fly the nest (at least on a long term basis). Mum designs houses in a flash as she scribbles floor plans on glad bake with such ease. She comes up with designs that are so great she has a team of builders, tilers, electricians and other tradies constantly in a state of impressed shock.
Anyway, you get the picture. The point to this babble is to say that she has many talents however technology is not one of them so why start now? According to answers.com the first PC was made in August 1981. I can remember my dad bringing home our first family computer when I was about six. This means mum has had access to a home computer for around 17 years. In this time, despite the constant teasing and many conversations going way over her head, good old mumma K has never even shown an interest in turning one on. My grandmother commenced using computers about 12 years ago as she got into Photoshop, from that moment on all our birthday and Christmas cards featured our faces superimposed into green fields or stuck on top of some random's face in a far away destination. She called these masterpieces granny graphics. At the peak of her computer passion my grandmother offered to assist my sister with her uni assignments on computer stating that she would have them done “easy as pie”. This may have been helpful and not condescending if my sister wasn’t studying to be a graphic designer! (My grandmother is another story for another day!)
So why is it that we are experiencing a technology invasion? Iphones are everywhere, even I am trying to justify purchasing one. People are starting to genuinely believe they need things which they clearly don’t. Pretty much my mother now has a $1000 photo album to take to sewing. Technology is taking away so many of life’s treasures. I loved looking through photo albums with my Nan. How are we going to explain this to our grandchildren “now deary I would like to show you photos of our family history however my ipad became obsolete 40 years ago and I never learnt to back up so our family history went down the drain when my battery died”.
I just don’t understand or appreciate this huge tecnology take over. They are always making something new and it's a constant battle to keep up with the times! For all my teasing, I liked that mum looked in a cook book rather than printed something off a web site. Now she can just google I feel sad for the pages in cook books that go unturned all over the world thanks to computers. Personally for me I like the clutter that comes with being behind the times. I enjoy having my big red diary and pen, a gps, a camera, a phone and an ipod in my handbag. Having a device that could do all these tasks in one would ruin the fun and make me look far less official!
So mum, if your ipad now leads you to start blogging and you come across this, remember the good old days of paper, pens, printing photos and CD's. You are one of the only oldies left behind the times, in a land where there were no computers. I like that you refused to conform and I hope your ipad does not mean that your cook books will sit unopened and our photo albums unloved. I hope you still do Sudoku once a week when they come in the paper rather than letting your ipad have all the fun. Mostly, I beg you, stay off Facebook!!!!!!! It’s bad enough having a mum with cooler toys than me let alone have everyone knwo about it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)