LJ Idol Season 7 Week 6 Not of Your World

[puppetmaker]

Dear Caroline,

This past Sunday you just turned 8 years old. I am amazed every day that I have such a daughter as you. I love watching you play with your toys, draw, read, do your homework, and so many other things.

I got to thinking the other day things that came into being after you came into being. Things just “Are” and always have been that to me still seem shiny and new and probably always will.

Take Movies for example. There were 3-D films in my day, heck before my day in your grandparent’s day. But the technology was cumbersome and only really worked for about a 1/3 to ½ the audience. The first 3-D film I saw with the new version of the technology was at Disney Hollywood (Which will always be Disney MGM to me) with the Muppets in 3-D which I love to this day, a fact you well know. You don’t remember a time before the choice of “do we see it in 3-D or 2-D?”

Or Lasers. You know that Pop-pop works with lasers. What you may not know is that he was there at the start of lasers. He remembers the big tables that they use for the large lasers that would fill a room. You tear off hologram stickers from toys and toss them like they are nothing but Pop-pop worked a lot with holography. You have seen and play with the holograms at their house including one of the first white light holograms ever. The laser pointer that you use to play with the cats did not exist when I was your age. I am amazed that I can buy for under 10 dollars something that use to cost in the thousands and 10s of thousands.

Or the iProducts in the house. You get bored somewhere and ask me for the iPad or if you want to play certain games you ask for the iPhone. Those items just are. Believe it or not, they came into being after you. In fact you were in Kindergarten when they came out. And it was a big deal. Bigger than a lot of people thought. The iPhone has changed the way we look at a phone and the computer. Sure we call it an iPhone but it is really a small computer in the palm of our hands. When I was a child, computers were huge machines that were housed in special buildings. I have watched the computer shrink from a large building to the palm of my hand. Then there is the idea of the touch screen which is really out of control now if you ask me. You are use to touching screen and having them react to your touch or the touch of the stylus. I am amazed that I can drag things with my finger around the screen. You draw on my iPad a lot and for you it seem perfectly normal, to me I am in awe as I watch you navigate your way through a picture that you are creating with your fingers.

Or Music. You asked me the other day what was in a cabinet under the TV. I told you a record player and you looked at me blankly. I showed you the turntable and explained how we use to listen to our music. I told you about audio tape and walkmans (which they aren’t making anymore). You know what a CD is but don’t understand why I just don’t download it from iTunes. I think how far we have come in terms of audio in such a short time and it is pretty amazing.

Your world is so different than mine. I tell you these things are you think I had a dinosaur for a pet. What world are your children going to grow up in? How ancient will our technology be to them? Will you tell them stories of the technology you grew up with? Will my time be not of their world?

Love,
Your Mommy

Comments

[beldar.livejournal.com]

I love this. While I can barely remember party-line phones, my young nephews and nieces won't know a time when everyone didn't have phones on their hips or in their pockets. And if it weren't for hip-hop, us oldsters would have thousands of records with nothing functional to play them on. (Glad that as a niche audiophile market, the turntable has made a modest comeback.)

And imagine how deprived the kids would feel if there were only three to four channels on TV?!

[adpaz.livejournal.com]

So beautiful, Kath. It's a great take on the topic - one I wish I'd thought about doing it first. :) It really will be a different world as our kids grow.

[sweeny-todd.livejournal.com]

heh! I sometimes turn to my friends, while I am holding my mobile saying "this is the future in my hands!" it is kinda exciting.

this is a great letter :-)

[m-malcontent.livejournal.com]

It's wild. I grew up with 3 networks and 2 independent channels on TV. I had records and later cassette tapes. I played pong in an early arcade named The Gold Mine.

The next generation will probably mock the technology todays kids have too...from their self driving cars, and personal holographic 3-D movie projectors.

[basric.livejournal.com]

Very nicely done. And so very true.

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Well done, plus nice take on the topic.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

My big perspective on time was when I realized my grandparents had all been born before the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk, but I grew up never knowing a time before man made it to the moon.

[myrna-bird.livejournal.com]

This is the stuff of memoirs. Excellent job touching on those different advances in technology.

[creature-girl08.livejournal.com]

This is all so true. Absolutely fabulous idea for the prompt.

[pricelessone.livejournal.com]

This was a wonderful read. And so true. Thanks for sharing it!

[fortitudehigh.livejournal.com]

I often think about the things that have changed in my lifetime, but it really shows the speed of change when you talk about things in your daughter's short life!

[bewize.livejournal.com]

Great piece and really interesting. Love the way you used the prompt!

[dreamchaser.livejournal.com]

It is unbelievable just how much things have changed, and will continue to change!!!!

[isis-lives.livejournal.com]

Beautiful piece. Yes, things have changed...and keep changing. You captured it well

[solstice-singer.livejournal.com]

I think about this sort of thing a lot, the way technology has evolved over the years, and how it has changed our society. In most cases, I think it's a good thing, but, in some cases, I wonder if, perhaps, it's gone a bit too far.

[amomentarythot.livejournal.com]

I remember when computers were giant hulking bulks housed in their own universe! And cell phones -- it still astonishes me how much people now depend upon them. I feel as though my land line is now a relic of the Creataceous era *shudders*

[nyxocity.livejournal.com]

Excellent take on the topic, and beautifully told! I often feel like this with our kids.

[fourzoas-reads.livejournal.com]

Every term the conversation I have with students about the technologies of my youth gets stranger and stranger. I feel truly odd telling them that we only had two phones, and that both had cords, and that if you were expecting a call, you had to be off the phone and waiting.

Lovely letter to your daughter!

[ellistrae.livejournal.com]

So very true and so well expressed. I am a child of the 80's, so I'm consistently impressed by the speed of technological improvements. I remember well the days of playing with my Atari, and when the Nintendo first came out, I thought it was the coolest thing EVER. Even that stupid robot thing that came with it that never worked the way it should. Very engrossing, and gave me a lot of great flashbacks. Great job and a unique spin on the prompt.

[lawchicky.livejournal.com]

Great entry! It's so amazing how many things have changed just within our own lifetime.