I went off to college almost 60 years ago with a brand new Olivetti typewriter resting grandly in its case. This was a gift from a loving grandmother who wanted me to have the latest in technology for my entrance into the world of academia. Even with this happily received item, research papers were a production nightmare. One rolled the paper into the Olivetti cartridge with two more sheets of paper behind it, carbon paper sandwiched between the layers. This could produce the three copies of my effort that so many professors seemed to find necessary. Then, when one made a mistake, the little bottle of White Out was opened, and the offending mis-typed letter or word was carefully painted out with a tiny brush on all three copies. Then the letter or word was over-typed with the correction, and one moved on slowly until the next mistake ------which was always just around the corner.
Flash to the present where the current college student taps merrily away on the keys of a laptop computer, letting the program, at the most, correct the spelling mistakes and, at the least, let the typist know that it is not spelled correctly along with helpful suggestions given. Sentences and paragraphs can be moved with ease, and the final copy whisked off to the professor with a key stroke.
I have enjoyed the introduction of the computer into my life and am reasonably competent with it. I regularly use, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, email, a financial program and a tax program. But I know the end of the line is coming at some point. I know this because of what I am already refusing to do. I do not Facebook (can that be a verb?) and I do not tweet. My phone is not ‘smart’ enough to Skype, although I think I would like to learn to do that. I also know this because of older friends who climbed off the technological planet at various stages of its arrival in their lives. One woman, 20 years my senior, a very literate and accomplished person, simply refused to move on from her typewriter. Another finally turned in her cell phone as she found it more trouble than it was worth.
I am left wondering what will be the big technological jump of the future that I will simply not do. Will it be groceries that arrive by drone, or a car that thinks it can drive itself? Whatever it is, I know it is coming, and I just hope that those around me who are younger, will forgive me when I decide to climb off the technological planet and live in a world I understand.