As a child, my only use for TV was PBS: Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and Reading Rainbow... my mom was big on educational TV. My two younger brothers and I are close in age, so for most of my childhood, we played together and had little hands-on experience with technology outside of Oregon Trail and Number Munchers in the computer lab at our elementary school. That was, of course, until our family got our first desktop computer.
Like most other early '90s models, our computer was a behemoth. It took up the entire desk in our family's spare room, whirred and groaned under the weight of the tasks we demanded of it, and occasionally had the power to actually scare us kids if we attempted to dail-up using AOL. As kids, we loved our first computer - it opened up the possibilities to create our own cartoons, to learn to type with Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, and even to attempt to master SkiFree. But soon enough, it was too slow, too old, and too big.
When I entered middle school, I encountered computer stations in my classrooms and a digital tuner in the Band Room. We repeated after "Pedro," the voice on our Spanish CDs, and created graphs and tables for the Science Fair. At home, I had my first email address and my first AIM account, both of which were used habitually to keep in touch with my friends. And, of course, if they weren't online, I could always call them on my brand new purple telephone. I had begged for my own phone line, but my parents knew better and refuted all of my pleas for telecommunications freedom as a 12 year old.
When my family finally replaced our too slow, too old, and too big computer, the old one was brought into my room where I was able to use it for word processing. Just as I had begged for a phone line in middle school, I asked persistently about a cell phone in high school. The answer was: get a job or wait until you're 16 and have your driver's license. Easy solution: I got a job and a chunky flip-phone that did nothing but call home in case of emergency or call my friends in case of boredom. With that job came the funds to buy an iPod. Within two years, I had even graduated to a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and an unlimited text-messaging plan.
Around that time, I graduated high school, taught my parents how to text message, signed up for a Facebook account, bought a digital camera, and was granted relatively free reign over "the family's third car." At the end of the summer, we took a trip to the Apple Store and bought my beloved Macbook, which came with a free iPod Nano. As a college freshman and then a Music Education major, my Mac allowed me to record projects for Music Theory in Garage Band, easily organize all of my media files, and video chat with friends and family across the country by using its built-in camera.
Today, my cell phone is about the size of a deck of cards, but I can use it for text/picture/video messaging, music storage, taking pictures, recording video, writing emails, surfing the web, playing games, computing basic math, keeping appointments, setting alarms, calculating the appropriate tip at a restaurant, and, oh, making phone calls, too. My computer can handle all of the same functions - but it can also play DVDs, create CDs and DVDs, edit films, record, edit and mix music, create photo projects, keep my calendar, and manage my finances. In case there's anything else I want it to do, I just have to download a widget.
At this point in my life, I trust, and even count on, technology everyday. I'm sure that my smoke alarm works and that a home security system will protect my friends and family. I've learned how to operate systems and manage technology when files don't transfer and documents don't get exported properly. I'm confident that I could navigate through most computer systems and electronic technologies. The irony of it all? To this day, I still can't tell you how to program the clock on a VCR.
Jessie Wilson
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