Technological Limits

I write a newspaper column for the local paper, The Calhoun Times, the following will be published Wednesday.

Let’s start this column with an acknowledgment that I am a modern man. By that I mean I am up-to-date; I can be intrigued by the lyrics of rap music; I am beginning to be comfortable with the informal dress of this new age. But what makes me more up-to-date than many of my generation is the fact I am comfortable with this technological age.

I have an iPhone. And, more importantly, I know how to use it. On that iPhone I have a wide variety of apps that range from a dictionary to a GPS device that gives me directions in any town in the world to one that allows me to point the phone at the stars to provide me with the name of every celestial orb I am viewing.

I have a Kindle. I can push a button and download in a matter of seconds the current edition of almost every major newspaper in the world or magazine or website. I can also download books in the same amount of time. And through these downloads I can read these writings at a third of the cost I’d otherwise pay. The next time you see me you’ll now know there walks before you a man with a library a thousand times the size of the famed Library of Alexander in his pocket.

I have a website where more people than I could have previously imagined read these epistles of mine. But not only do they read what I write they can, also, view me on videos. Can you imagine it? Technology has moved me beyond the boundaries of Gordon County into a larger world.

I am a modern man; I am in tune with the times; I have embraced this age in which we live. Someone should write a song about me.

Speaking of songs: I have a granddaughter who will be celebrating a birthday on Friday. She’ll be ten. She’s certainly in tune with the times. When I got that iPhone I never read the directions. She and her sister taught me all I needed to know. They’d never used an iPhone before; they just intuitively knew.

Being the savvy technological senior citizen that I am, having granddaughters who are as technologically savvy as they are, obviously I wanted purchase a birthday present suitable for the times in which we live.

Now, for those of my generation who are reading this: Have you heard of iTunes? It’s another wonder of this age. A technologically inclined person of this Twenty-first Century can actually go online to the iTunes site and purchase music. That music is downloaded into a little device called an iPod. This iPod can house many hundreds of songs. It can be placed in the pocket and from it a small wire can run to earphones where one’s personal musical preferences can be enjoyed whenever desired.

I told my daughter I’d be mailing an iTunes gift card for granddaughter. “You don’t have to do that,” she said. “You can get the password off the back and email it to her.”

I’ve drawn the line on my technological development. Birthday presents were meant for packages to be opened whereupon there can be the proper gasp of surprise. I’ll read books on my Kindle; I’ll keep in touch by my iPhone; I’ll email this column to the paper. But my granddaughter’s birthday present will be in a package with a bow.

Comments

[revssathome@aol.com]

I have embraced this age in which we live too .. but, until now didn't know I wanted an iphone. but iphone is now at the top of my list of things I "need"

and, I'm glad you're putting the b'day present in a package with a bow! -:)

[Beach Walkin]

LOL... and AMEN. b'day presents should come with wrapping paper and a bow.