Technology of Today: The Death of Me

You could pretty much say that I didn't really get the technology gene in our family. I mean, my dad is able to basically build a computer and put any programs on it that he wants. My brother can somehow see any movie or listen to any song he wants by pushing a magic button, and my sister can work every technological item in our house. And then there's me. On a good day, I will be able to figure out how to turn my laptop on. It's the sad truth. But I'm just not a technical guru. The only person I actually feel more competent than with technology is my grandma. (And that's saying a lot because my grandma just learned what a CD was this Christmas as opposed to a cassette tape.) I've sat at the computer for hours upon end, yelling at the screen thinking that this will magically make my five-page paper come back. And then I just end up calling my dad and listening to him tell me how I'm an idiot and computers don't automatically save your documents. (I still don't understand that one. I mean, with everything computers can do these days, I think they should be able to save something by just reading your mind and figuring out that you want what you're typing to be saved.)

But I've been very close to smashing my computer into pieces because it's just not doing what I want it to.

And my dad always tells me how he thinks it's funny that I basically suck at technology. He tells me that I was raised in a generation that is supposed to be more adept than his at working things. I'm sorry, but I just can't do it. I know how to type a paper and send it to the printer. And that doesn't even go smoothly all the time. Coming to college, I had to learn to actually install printer software on my computer, how to change the ink and the paper, and fix stuff that actually goes wrong. Oh, but I've definitely got the internet thing down. Facebook is just a click away in my Favorites toolbar :)

But the point that my dad always trys to make to me is that this is only the beginning. Our generation is just going to build upon what we already have, and pretty soon our entire world is going to be run technologically. I wonder what Schumaker would think of that. Does technology bring people happiness or will it just in the long run turn our entire nation turn into narcissists? I mean, if you look at it in the long run, technology is going to eventually take over a whole lot. But technology is pretty much considered to be a materialistic need to Schumaker. Sometimes technology makes me sooo mad because it doesn't work how I want. But then I think of things that make me happy like Facebook, and tv, and movies, and cell phones. I don't think I could live without those.

For now I guess I'll just start with figuring out how to really work this laptop of mine.