Monday, May 9, 2011

"Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't."

The world is ever changing and if we don’t strive to keep up, it will swallow us whole. We have all laughed about the flashing time on the stove or the VCR, for those of us old enough to remember them, but refusing to learn and evolve with today’s technology can have us spinning our wheels in a virtual sea of cassette tapes and typewriters.

Blogging, social networking, computers, ipads, you name it; they are all a signs of the times. If we don’t embrace them they will they will simply turn their noses up and march on, leaving us to play with our 8 track tapes and beta max recorders. OK, that might be a bit extreme, but technology is here to stay and few things can evolve as fast as the techie world of electronics.

Tapes turned to CDs, CDs turned to MP3s. Videos went to DVDs, then Blue ray, and now there is streaming video, 3D home movies and more. And yes, for the record, I believe books will be read largely on digital devices in the near future as well.

My point is not to debate where things are going or how they’re going to get there. My point is simply to say that the world is going to keep moving whether we like it or not, so we better get on that wagon before it pulls out of the station. I have met people penning novels on typewriters or with a pencil and paper. This in itself isn’t bad if you prefer that particular media but several do it because they don’t know how to use a word processing program or a spreadsheet! My 82 year old Aunt learned to use the internet and e-mail her family complete with digital photo attachments. If she can do that, anyone can learn to take advantage of social media networks, digital publishing Ipads, and the like.

If none of that has you eager to crack open that e-instruction manual then think about this. Teenagers will keep up with this fast paced world even if we don’t. Catching obligatory hand scrawled note in their dresser is a thing of the past. There are text messages, e-mails and any other of the endless ways they can and will communicate. If you don’t have the ability to educate and protect them from the digital world then who will? Besides, I for one can’t wait to post those darling baby pictures on Face Book just before she goes to her prom.

Technology is a tool to be used, but if that tool never makes it out of the box, it becomes an anchor, dragging us to the bottom of a vast technological ocean. What have you been shying away from? Do you lack the ability to program your DVR, are you afraid to step up to that smart phone. Get out there. Learn new things, play with all the new toys. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go program my VCR.

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