Technomania!

By now, you've probably heard about the new iPad that Apple put out today - sounds like a feminine hygiene product to me!  I haven't taken a good look at the features yet but I'm sure we'll hear all about it in the coming days (and more jokes about the name, too!).

To me, though, this new gadget is just another in a long line of devices that I'll probably never use.  Call me old school but I'm sitting at a desk, using a keyboard, on a PC.  Not a laptop, not a notebook, not a smartphone - just a regular old computer.

My question is, at what point did using a computer become old school?  I'm sure the majority of people still use one, but I'll bet that in 5 years I'll be in the minority.  I'm not against new stuff - hey, when your husband develops websites for a living you live with new stuff - but doesn't it seem like the new stuff is coming at us faster than ever?

Last night Brian and I were watching a rerun of Modern Family, this really funny new sitcom.  The jist of the episode was that the wife couldn't work any of the remotes or electronics.  We both laughed really hard because it mirrored our household completely.  I swear I'm not making this up, but I can't turn on our TV downstairs.  Brian has always done it, and I wouldn't know where to begin.  Don't even get me started on the Blu-Ray player.  And everything I know about this here computer thingy is because of Brian.  He has the patience of a saint.  Honestly, I wouldn't even know how to upload photos if it weren't for him!

As I was walking on the treadmill this morning, listening to my iPod (that, I can use!), a Frank Sinatra song came on.  This reminded me of my dad, because he loved Sinatra.  And then I started thinking about how much he would've loved the iPod.  He died a year before they became mainstream but I know if he could've he would've owned one.  He was the first person on our block to have a Walkman (he was also the first person I knew to walk for his health - in the 70's, NO ONE walked - why would you?).  He also was the first person in our neighborhood to have a boombox, which made us very popular with the kids on our street.  My dad loved gadgets, and he was great at figuring them out.  Too bad I didn't inherit that trait!

Just think of the advance of electronics since the Walkman!  It makes me wonder what life is going to be like in 2040.  I'll be 71.  Hey, maybe by then we'll all have robot maids!  Or Hovercars!  Or those cool toilets like they have in Japanese restaurants!  Maybe we'll just have our computers wired right into our brains.  Which would be great for me, since then I wouldn't have to figure out how to use it.