Mater

I sometime feel as if I'm white-water rafting down the rapids, virtually speaking, when it comes to trying to keep up with the younger generation, as they juggle the latest techno-speak and vie for the latest gadgets.

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Reluctantly, I have to admit that I have always been a bit of a technophobe. I probably always will be, despite living in this High-Tech Age. I'm sure I'm not alone. There are still a few of us around, unbelievable as it may seem - who struggle every time some new gadget hits the High Street; some new piece of technology that no one should be without. What - pray, tell! - is a Blackberry? All I know is that it's not the edible kind. Is there any kind of connection between the two? And why should I need one?

Somewhere along the way I did seem to catch up with technology, albeit a very brief meeting, and for a full two minutes I felt comfortable with it. But then it sped ahead, leaving me floundering in the back-waters. As soon as I got 'a handle' on some new piece of equipment, a new, improved version appeared and I was lost again.

I remember the early mobiles, but fail to see how they were mobile - by any stretch of the imagination. You still see them in (fairly) old movies. The actors look like they are talking into a house brick with an antennae attached. I never had one of those. My first mobile was quarter the size of that, yet that was big by today's standards.

The first home computers were nothing more than games consoles, I suppose. We had a Commodore 64. It was very addictive, as I remember. According to my girls, I was well and truly hooked. What were the games called again? Oh yes, 'Icicle Works' and 'Fire Ant'. Those were the favourite ones. Apparently I would jostle with my children for my turn, every time it was connected up to the TV. I deny it, of course, till this day.

As for televisions - well, they were around long before we had one - at least ten years anyway. It was the early sixties and I was nine when our first TV was delivered. It was like stepping into the future and an exiting time all told, because my parents had won the pools (yes, some people do!), with the result that not only did we have a telly, but we also had our first telephone installed. Both proved such an intrusion on family life that we got rid of them within a year. But the 'damage' was done and it wasn't long before the telephone was reconnected and the TV back in place. Technology had arrived. And then man landed on the moon. Unbelievable!

Technology continued to leap ahead as I raised my own family (with a bit of help from hubby, of course!). When I was a child, calculators weren't even around. Pen, paper and a few brain cells had to suffice when we were in school, but our children had to contend with sin, cos and tan and scientific calculators. To me they're as much use as Pythagoras. But a straight forward calculator is handy. Mine was one of the first solar ones, and it is still going strong. Probably because it isn't used all that often. I still scribble my sums on bits of paper.

My children became computer literate long before I went near a computer. I used something called a PC Word Processor, first. It claimed to be almost a computer and a program would soon become available which would update it to computer status. Pity it never happened. It did have a floppy drive though, and I had saved no end of work on floppy disks when the thing crashed. Well, it was more of a sizzle actually, as it burnt out. Why? I haven't a clue. And then to rescue my work: Alas, however much I tried, I could not retrieve the information I had stored on those floppies. Something to do with the formatting - I think. Oh well, you live and learn. Hopefully.

About a decade ago I was putting the final touches to my degree work when I was asked if I was computer literate. But this mature student had to hang her head and admit that she wasn't. I knew nothing at all beyond word processing, and even there I was still learning. My children were miles ahead of me and we still didn't have a computer at home. I did, however, have one of those word processors that was a step up from the typewriter, but a step behind the PC Word Processor, complete with an ink cartridge instead of those blasted ribbons which I could never get right. But, as computers became more popular, the cartridges became more and more difficult to get hold of. It seemed that no one but me wanted them.

The word processor saw me through a ream of essays (and the rest), as well as a dissertation or two, so it was certainly value for money, but my cut and paste method took hours, using scissors and a glue stick. (Don't tell anyone, but I didn't realise for a long time that I could do the same in next to no time on the computer, so continued using scissors and glue and photocopying the results, until a kind soul put me right.)

I got my first actual computer just after I had my first mobile phone, coinciding with the new millennium, but didn't have the internet connected until two or three years ago. And now I'm on Broadband. Wow! Not only that, but although the original computer (with Windows XP, no less) is still in use daily (why can't I have it in my room, mum?), I now have a laptop all to myself. My sister, on the other side of the North Sea, followed suit. First with a computer and then a laptop. She's turned out to be much more technically minded than me, so I can generally send an SOS via e-mail if something goes wrong. Or text her on my neat little mobile, if the computer doesn't work. I know enough to do that at least. She's mentioned something about Bluetooth, but I'm lost. Perhaps if I ask my seven year old grandson...
Technology has certainly invaded our homes, despite our, perhaps feeble, resistance.
And the thing is, we don't mind. It's opened up new 'worlds', made keeping in touch easier (although I still love receiving handwritten letters through 'snail mail'). We can surf the net for information, become part of virtual communities, made up of like-minded people, and even study online. Oh yes, and pay the bills and do the shopping. I’m starting to get a hang of that, at last.

Of course, sometimes it all threatens to take over as I sit here, not only bleary eyed, but 'google'-eyed. I close the laptop down for the evening, determined that my next notes will be jotted down on good old-fashioned paper, using a biro and my own handwriting, but the laptop beckons and so do the writing communities on-line. It may have been a long time coming (for me), but thumbs up to Information Technology. (I think!)