#6 - Computers

When I think about my earliest memories of using a computer, I'm sure I would relate to many other individuals that were born in the early 80s and say that our first encounters were probably in school. I can recall experimenting with the 8 inch floppy of the MS-DOS version of the Oregon Trail educational program. For the most part, I had no idea what I was doing. I was 9 years-old in 1992 when that came out, and I could really care less about Oregon Trail. It was maybe a couple years later when my dad was able to afford a computer for me and my brother (he had bought one, but we weren't allowed to mess with dad's stuff). When that computer came home, it might as well have been back at the store because we had no idea how to use it. We were too busy playing outside, enjoying being a kid. Besides, connecting to AOL seemed to take at least 15 minutes! I remember my dad telling my brother constantly to get off the computer because he would stay on for hours, and of course it ties up the phone line until we were able to afford a second line. I hated the computer from the start. I had no idea the how to use it, the terminology. I could never remember the "http://" that went before the website. It was frustrating but I always felt better by going outside and pretending to be Michael Jordan out on the basketball court in the street. Fast forward to today, I'm not so computer ignorant. Now that I have been around PCs for close to 20 years now, I feel that I'm a little more computer savvy than normal. And for good reason. Majority of my school work has been done on computers as well as most of my free time. Making movies and music would not be a possibility for me without my Mac. Talk about the impact computers have had on my life, between my wife and I we have 3 laptops and I have no idea why. I hardly ever use the one I just bought 2 months ago and she uses one for her job, accounting. I think it's just a piece of mind knowing that I have a laptop that I can use anywhere. That is just a little proof that computers have ingrained society so much that we feel uncomfortable if we don't have one. Geesh, talk about a power control that companies like Apple and Microsoft have on us.