Modern Technology, Part 4

My first computer was an I-Omega Super Brain. It contained a super-size, six-inch (diagonally measured) monitor that displayed “brilliant white letters on a jet black screen.” An obese (or perhaps just big-boned) beauty, it boasted a whopping 64 kilobytes of internal memory and two (not just one, but two) external drive bays that accepted floppy disks up to 48 kilobytes each. A floppy disk was a plastic, magnetic coating, recording device. Think of an anorexic CD that’s bendy and hides in a paper sleeve; 48 kilobytes of data on something you could hold in your hand was very impressive at the time.

By comparison, today’s flash drive (or thumb drive, or jump drive, or pocket disk or san disc, pick a generic name already), those cute little gadgets about the size of your pinky that plug into a USB port (Universal Serial Bus, in case you cared), hold up to 32 gigabytes of data. That’s almost a million times more information. One pinky-sized thumb drive (pinky drive, perhaps) can hold all the information in the Encyclopedia Britannica including pictures, Roget’s Thesaurus, and your Funk and Wagnalls, unabridged edition. By the way, if these book titles don't ring a bell, you probably won’t get this article. If the term book doesn’t ring a bell, you’re probably my youngest son.

Today’s computers are true wonders of modern technology. They allow us to do things we’ve never done, and do things we’ve always done, better and faster. They help us learn and to teach what we have learned. They have changed the way we gather information and the information available to gather. They have changed the way we get the news, the good news we enjoy, the bad news we need to hear, and even the very bad news we’d rather not. They have changed the way we are entertained, the way we shop, even the way we pay our bills, or not (the electronic transfer has been e-mailed, really).

As wonderful as computers are, at times, not so much. At times, they are incredible time- wasters and can steal time needed for work or study. Addictive video games, cyber bullying, and, worse, cyber stalking, can steal time and self-esteem and innocence. Just trying to keep up with the technology - the hardware, the software, the accessories, the add-ons, the strap-ons (sorry, different technology) - can steal our money and our resources. Not keeping up is not an option because the software keeps changing and the old hardware won’t run the new software. Sometimes the new hardware won’t run the new software because the new software has been replaced with the newer software which is needed to be compatible with new operating system which was developed to be compatible with the newest processor.

And then there’s the age-old question, what to do with the old hardware? You can’t give it away; schools can’t teach today’s children with yesterday’s technology. You can’t sell it; nobody wants hand-me-down electronics. You can’t even throw it away unless you can find an authorized electronics disposal facility (open only on alternate Thursdays between 12:00 and 1:00, please call ahead, we may be at lunch). Computers; we love them, we hate them. We can’t live without them, can’t live with them, and can’t bring them to the dump (but that’s another story).