Day 3 NaBloPoMo at yeah write guest blogger: Cyn K
“My computer is so slow!”
Kids these days will never know a world without computers and the Internet, and they probably take these tools for granted. However, the belly-aching about slow technology I hear comes not from the younger generation, but from colleagues old enough to know better.
I remember typing up school reports on a word processor. Even with corrective ribbon, fixing mistakes then took significantly longer than it takes me now to fix an error with a computer. There was no experimenting with the order of paragraphs or even going back to add in a missed word or sentence. Okay, I could have experimented more if I didn’t procrastinate, but still…
Before multitasking was put on a pedestal, I did one project at a time on my early computers. To try to run multiple programs at once was an exercise in futility. Today, I love being able to have a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, our office database and multiple tabs in my web browser open at the same time. I appreciate my computer’s sufficient processing speed that allows me to do this, so I don’t hurl epitaphs at it like “stupid, slow computer!”
My co-workers are less tolerant of delays in opening a file or web page. One of them hums the “Jeopardy!” theme as she waits, another bangs her mouse and insists her computer is broken whenever something doesn’t open instantly. Adults have become just as bad as kids when it comes to expecting instant gratification, at least when it comes to technology.
I remember the days of dial-up internet. Not just any dial-up, FREE dial-up. You had time to grab a snack and get organized while your modem dialed, made weird noises, failed to connect, redialed and then finally, FINALLY allowed you to log into your free Juno account. You might be able to check email and visit a site before someone forgot and picked up the phone, disconnecting you from the Internet. You never, NEVER considered opening multiple windows, and you certainly weren’t streaming the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
I, for one, am grateful for all the things that I can do with my computer and the Internet: listen to music, watch movies without getting gouged at a concession stand, chat, delete spam, waste time on Facebook by uploading hundreds of photos of my son, see how little money I have in my checking account, and virtually shop at Walmart (free shipping!) so I don’t have to go to the store. When a page doesn’t load right away, I don’t complain. According to my memory, this all happens a lot faster than it did in the days of dial-up.
I’m not claiming I have the patience of Job. I will acknowledge that stubbornness trumps patience for me. If I set out to see a web page or write a blog post, by golly, I’ll sit there as long as it takes, slow internet connection be damned! Still, I do wish that my office mates would dial up the patience and dial back their anger. Besides, yelling at your computer doesn’t make it go any faster.
I speak from experience A friend told me that.
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I am definitely guilty of yelling at my computer to hurry up.
I remember when AOL first came out. I still use my same AOL screenname from back in the 90s.
i am definitely guilty of losing my composure with my electronic equipment. i want it to work properly and i want it to work NOW. i was born in 1969, so i was well into college before papers were written on the computer, and even then we had to have special computer lab classes, since no one owned one!
Oh, I used to love my electric typewriter because it had spell check and would beep at me when I spelled a word wrong! It was a Smith Corona, and I used it for the first two years in college until I moved into a dorm with a computer lab! And now I have a laptop that I love and instead of beeping, I get a red squiggly line under my misspelled words! Great post for Day 3!
Oh my goodness………. I grew up with a phone mounted to the wall, rotary, with a cord that gave just enough leeway to lean on the arm of the sofa. There was no call waiting, no caller I.D., and to think of where technology is now was impossible. I was born in 1976, so getting channel 27 Fox was a huge deal because we had 3 channels before that. Then my area is so small, my community was the last place to get cable, last place to get internet service, and even now there are some places where the smartest phone in the world cannot receive signal. I had dial up years ago when my oldest daughter was a baby. I was happy to sign on and jump on my AOL Blog. I get frustrated at times while online. This is usually after Google Chrome has stopped responding for the 5th time in an hour. lol. However, I’m home alone and not annoying anyone but myself if I scream names at screen. 🙂 This is a great post and it makes you think of how anyone would be able to go back in time and survive the radio stations that had to be set perfect by a knob. Now music and everything else is a click of a button, slow or not.
Haha, I love this, Cyn! As a techie from a young age, I can say I never yell at a computer, or… *shudders* throw one as I’ve seen my friends do with laptops and phones. That doesn’t mean I’m patient, though. I mostly coo at it while it slowly ticks away, “Come on, little guy, you can do it, you can do it!” 🙂 That’s gotta be as annoying as Jeopardy! 🙂
I love this post! What also kills me about peoples’ general lack of tolerance for a page taking 15 extra seconds to load is the underlying concept that those 15 seconds are super, super valuable loss. My day is so OMGbusy! that I don’t have time for slow wi-fi! I do, however, have time for streaming Grey’s Anatomy, looking up the plot to “Tom Sawyer: Detective” which I forgot was a real book until 2 days ago, and Twitter.
I had internet at school, but do have some memories of the dial-up connection and the weird sound it used to make (although it all seemed great at the time!). I can’t really imagine the world without modern/computers internet now, especially as I use all this to keep in contact with colleagues and friends in different countries. However, I do admit to being less than patient sometimes, when things take a while to load…;) It’s nice to be reminded of how things were and be grateful for the technology we have!
There is a bit of hilarity to this, in that I have just spent the past fifteen minutes trying to connect to my wireless so I can view this very post! I agree, there are many out there who don’t remember what it used to be like and expect that 1-second connection. I, fortunately, am not one of those people, although I do get mildly irritated that my service keeps dropping. Ah well, such is life! Great post!
I’m honored that you were dedicated enough to reading this post to spend time getting a connection. 🙂
Cyn — I’ve moved myself three times this morning trying to get a stronger connection. And I typed my final school paper on a typewriter. When I got my first job in PR, that was my initial exposure to a word-processor. Yeah, after Whiteout and that white chalk tape. It seems pretty much a miracle.
See, that’s funny. It didn’t use to be that our computers were mobile. It’s so easy to forget how far we’ve come.