The Internet, with the email and the wikipedia

Our generation will have some really interesting stories to tell our grandchildren, the kind that begin with “Back in my day” or “When I was your age.”  For instance, I remember before CDs or DVDs, I must have been in middle school and a teacher who worked with my dad at the high school was showing us these “laser discs” he used in his classroom instead of videotapes.  I remember thinking, Psshhh, that’s ridiculous, but look what happened within the next few years.

I also remember when the “computer lab” at school was a happening new addition, and we each had a Mac to work on.  We would practice typing, ClarisWorks, and SimCity.  Eventually we even went on The Internet.

When we got The Internet at home, my family had one computer in the middle of the kitchen, and my brother and I would monopolize it to “do homework.”  If we were doing something private we would turn down the brightness of the screen almost all the way.  We would have to squint to see it, so how could someone getting a glass of water glance at the screen and see what we were doing?  (I guarantee you I was writing poetry.) 

Of course we couldn’t sneak onto The Internet because our parents would hear the telltale sound of the modem dialing up – and will anyone born in the 80s ever be able to forget that sound?  I think not.  We quickly figured out how to turn the sound on the modem off, and I definitely remember my mom picking up the phone to make a call and realizing we’d been on The Internet for hours now.  Oh such fun.

Now I realize how annoying it must have been for anyone trying to call us between the years of 1999 and 2002.  That busy signal drives me crazy now when I try to call home, and it only happens every so often.  I bet back then it was constant, and more irritating with every redial.

I got my own phone line sometime in high school, although that was only because of all my long-distance phone calls to Mendocino and Ft. Bragg.  I even remember the phone number (-9096) although I only had it for a couple years before I went to Davis.  Then that phone line became the internet line, and now I wonder what happened to it, if it even still exists.  Maybe some other kid has my 9096 number as their personal phone line.

My parents have, of course, graduated to a cable internet line for more rapid downloads, a much sleeker Mac, and constant internet connection.  They are now a house with a computer in one room chiming with each new incoming email.  Along with these chic new changes came cable TV, three years too late for Robb or me, which I think was deliberate and my parents’ brand of dark humor.

When we were having all the carpets in the house replaced with hardwood, I was the one who opted to keep the carpet.  (I still prefer carpet to wood floors, one big check mark in California’s favor.)  While the rest of the house was torn up, the computer, TV, and VCR were moved into my room.  I have a vivid memory of renting old movies from National Video (they did 3 movies for 3 days for 3 dollars) and watching them while emailing people and talking on my own phone line.  It was so luxurious.  Amazing.

My grandchildren will probably roll their eyes at me while they pick up whatever tiny miracle devices also happen to suffice as cell phones (or maybe they’ll be implanted in their heads so they’ll roll their eyes while they tap out codes on their temples?) while I try to tell them about the days of busy signals and not everyone had an answering machine, and sometimes you just had to make plans to meet up with your friends at a certain time or place, and then everyone would just go there.  If you didn’t know how to get there you had to ask someone for directions or look at an actual map you would keep in your glovebox. 

I’m absolutely not saying it was better back then, I just like the way our generation balances on the divide.  Sometimes I see old people with email addresses and it makes me smile, and sometimes I see old people who refuse to get email addresses on the grounds that they’re too old, and that makes me smile too.  My parents have adapted somehow, better than I would ever have guessed (especially given that they still don’t have call waiting or caller ID, and they screen their calls, so I always have to leave a message going “Hello?….Are you guys there?….Hello?”).

But some older people are trying to adapt and just haven’t quite made it, as evidenced by this conversation I overhead at work between two (ahem) older folks:

-Did you watch that video I told you about yesterday?
-Yeah, I watched it last night.
-On the youtube?
-No, not on the youtube, I just googled it.
-You what?
-I watched it on ebay.  I mean, not ebay.  On yahoo.
-Oh really?
-Yeah, I googled it.

Bless their hearts.  Of course, I know this’ll be me one day, with phrases and trademarks I can’t even imagine yet.