Life in the electronic era

[gabosaurus]

My mom usually picks up my daughter from school and brings her to my house. When she gets there, my mom usually takes in our mail. What little there is of it.
Which is why my mom asked me yesterday why my family gets so little mail.

Caused to consider that. My husband and I both have our paychecks electronically deposited. All our bills are paid automatically as well. People write e-mails instead of letters now.

My mom was talking about how she used to wait anxiously to get letters from people. I've never had that feeling of anticipation.

Since most of you are older than I am, what are some other things you feel have changed since the era of computers and other electronic developments?

[jimnyc]

My mom usually picks up my daughter from school and brings her to my house. When she gets there, my mom usually takes in our mail. What little there is of it.
Which is why my mom asked me yesterday why my family gets so little mail.

Caused to consider that. My husband and I both have our paychecks electronically deposited. All our bills are paid automatically as well. People write e-mails instead of letters now.

My mom was talking about how she used to wait anxiously to get letters from people. I've never had that feeling of anticipation.

Since most of you are older than I am, what are some other things you feel have changed since the era of computers and other electronic developments?

Never having to be home to get or make calls, which were few and far between. If you don't answer at home, they call your cell, and if you don't answer that you'll get a text message 1 minute later. I miss being able to fully ignore people!

[Abbey Marie]

The first thing that comes to mind is how bad it seems that kids grow up watching movies in the back of dad's car, instead of talking to their parents/each other, playing games, or just looking out the window and thinking/imagining for a while.

I think we are raising a generation of people who cannot sit still without being entertained, cannot think deeply on any subject, and cannot concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds. And forget about reading a book. Parents who employ electronic babysitters at home and on the road are lazy and know not what they do.

[KarlMarx]

Newspapers and magazines ... I don't know about others, but I no longer subscribe to either...

Phones... when I was a kid, you called someone's house, now you call THEM. Many people have at least one phone (I have at 4 phone numbers, my land line, my work phone, my cell phone, and my work cell phone). I now carry two cell phones with me (I guess it makes me seem dorky).

Oh yeah, phones don't sound like phones anymore... Whenever you hear strains of Pachelbel's "Canon", you see people reaching for their cell phones..

Telecommuting. I work in a plant in upstate New York, but everyone I work with are in other states and in other time zones. In emails, when I sayt that "such and such will happen at x:00" I have to state the time zone I'm in. I have to, otherwise, people won't know when something happened (of course, that's assuming that people know that Eastern Time is one hour ahead of Central time, etc... you'd be surprised that some people don't know that). It is not unusual for me to have a telecom with several people who live in every time zone in the country. Our HELP desk is in Puerto Rico.... the servers I work on are in Colorado... I have a production move on Saturday, I'm in New York, the admin is in Florida, my lead is in Colorado, my work colleagues are in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Minnesota....

the weird thing about this is.. I don't think there's anything amazing about this anymore.

Money... does anyone use actual physical currency anymore? I always use my credit card... even at McDonald's. It's easier. Gas stations, grocery stores, and fast food restaurants don't even bother having you sign.

[CSM]

It's crazy but I really miss the face to face, eyeball to eyeball interaction particularly when something is important. You can tell a lot about the communication/interaction by facial expression, body language, tone of voice, etc. If something I am telling someone causes their eyballs to roll back in their sockets and go unconcious, then I know I need to take another tack right away. Same thing happens via e-mail could take two days of exchange.

[KitchenKitten99]

The first thing that comes to mind is how bad it seems that kids grow up watching movies in the back of dad's car, instead of talking to their parents/each other, playing games, or just looking out the window and thinking/imagining for a while.

I think we are raising a generation of people who cannot sit still without being entertained, cannot think deeply on any subject, and cannot concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds. And forget about reading a book. Parents who employ electronic babysitters at home and on the road are lazy and know not what they do.

I agree. I can understand the tv/movie thing if it will be a long trip. But I constantly see people even in town where the kids are staring at their own tv screens while only going a few miles down the road.

I will never own a minivan anyway, but if I were to get an SUV, there will be no TV screens in the seats. We don't go on long trips enough to make it worth it and I prefer my kids talk to me and each other.

[Little-Acorn]

Waiting at an intersection at a red light, with no other cars for miles around. I could cross through the intersection with zero danger to anyone, if a human were directing traffic. He would see there were no other cars coming, and wave me thru.

Yes, I know, traffic lights are much cheaper than paying a human, especially with additional things you have to pay like Social Security, Unemployment, State and Federal income taxes ad infinitum.

So, we pay by losing time instead of losing money.

[SassyLady]

The first thing that comes to mind is how bad it seems that kids grow up watching movies in the back of dad's car, instead of talking to their parents/each other, playing games, or just looking out the window and thinking/imagining for a while.

I think we are raising a generation of people who cannot sit still without being entertained, cannot think deeply on any subject, and cannot concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds. And forget about reading a book. Parents who employ electronic babysitters at home and on the road are lazy and know not what they do.


Oh, Abbey, you took the words right out of my mouth. Technology is great and technology is tragic.

I love the fact that I can communicate with hundreds of people at a time on a public message board like this ... and I love being able to shop without going out in bad weather ... I love being able to get my news without reading a newspaper or watching the local television stations.

But I am with Jim ... I don't like having an electronic leash (cell phone). My boss called me on my cell phone the other morning while I was getting ready for work ... to ask me where a file was. He called as if I was at the office. Uggh!

I don't like the fact that I have to go to Facebook to find out what my daughter is up to .... she told me that she finds it easier and more efficient to post there so that she doesn't have to spend endless hours on the phone keeping everyone up to date with what the family is doing.

So...to answer Gabby's question ... I miss having daily, long conversations with my daughter about how/what her day was like.



PS....I absolutely would rather have a real card come in the mail, right on time, than to have an electronic e-card for my birthday, wedding invitation, Mother's Day, Christmas, etc.

[gabosaurus]

Speaking of phones, I find the excessive use of them unnerving. I see kids in the hallways texting each other instead of actually walking up to each other to engage in face to face contact.
I do like Facebook, though. My daughter can keep up with her friends and relative all over merely by going online. When you can get birthday greetings from England, Germany and Australia all in one place, that is pretty sweet.
Her grandparents still got her real birthday cards, though. :)