Technology

A few decades ago if we’d seen someone walking around alone talking out loud we’d have thought they were crazy. Today we just assume they’re using a cellphone.

We can do things today that were only science fiction back when I was a kid. (Yes, I’m old.)

A few weeks ago I was without internet access for a few days and I was amazed at how much I missed it.

Perhaps in the future instead of cellphones we’ll have brain implants. 

Then some evil world government will take over and control us all.

I guess you can tell my writerly imagination is at work. ;-)

Technology and Plots

Technology has made a big difference in the plots of books for kids. Things that were science fiction twenty years ago are the norm now.

Of course the things we have give authors ideas about what might become available in the future, so that helps them come up with ideas for plots.

Before computers, a lot of children's books were about kids having adventures without adults around.

Today in many of those fictional situations children would only need to pull out their cell phones and call for help, so it's much more difficult for authors to come up with contemporary plots for kids.

But sometimes phones can get lost, stolen, or are not allowed, and there are some places where there's no cell phone reception, so it is possible for modern kids to have adventures.

And modern technology creates the possibility of identity theft or for villains to find people and know information about them, so it does create the possibility of contemporary plot ideas.

I can't wait to read more of the new books for kids and see how the technology we have now is used. But I'm also looking forward to more historical and science fiction books.

In case you haven't guessed, I read fiction books for kids a lot, partly because that's what I write, but mainly because I'm still a kid on the inside. ;-)

Tech Stuff

I consider myself a techno-idiot, but I do things with technology I couldn't have imagined doing a few decades ago. Technology has become part of our daily lives and it's everywhere from computers, tablets and cellphones to alarm clocks and heating systems.

And today's kids are absolutely addicted to their technological devices.

That's not necessarily bad, but it has some important disadvantages.

Decades ago I read a library book that had been published in the 1940s or 50s. I can't remember the author or title, but some of the content has stayed with me.

The book said back in Victorian times when ladies protected their skin from the sun upper class girls often didn't reach puberty until about 15 years old. The author referred to the song, Sweet Sixteen and Never Been Kissed, as an example. But, he said, lower class girls who often worked out in the fields reached puberty at around 12 or 13. But he said because kids at the time the book was written spent so much time watching television, and the light in the rays coming from TV screens was the same frequency as sun rays, kids would be reaching puberty earlier.

I don't know how valid his idea was, but today's kids are spending hours every day with their faces close to devices that emit the same kind of light rays. And it's not unheard of now for girls to reach puberty when they're eight years old.

Of course we've all heard of the problems getting kids to pay attention to other things when they're busy texting, and they often communicate that way with people standing near them.

Technology has given us wonderful advantages, but it also has some disadvantages.

I Did It!

Anyone who knows me is probably aware that I'm a techno-idiot. While I can do things that seemed impossible 10 years ago and wouldn't even have imagined twenty years ago, I'm far behind a lot of other people.

But last week I did something that makes me feel good.

I wanted to look at an old manuscript I'd worked on about ten years ago, but it was an obsolete Claris Works document. (I use a Mac.) I tried changing the name to something newer and the whole thing turned into a list of tech stuff I couldn't understand. All I'd written was gone!

But then I got an idea.

I pulled out the old computer I'd used back then and found the document. Then I changed it to .txt and it opened. I had to erase many pages of gibberish before and after what I'd written, and remove a lot of strange symbols that had been inserted randomly into words throughout the document. That took some time, but wasn't difficult. Spell check helped a lot.

Since the old computer no longer has internet access I put the document on a memory stick, brought it to my current computer, and was able to copy and paste the whole thing (about 40,000 words) into a new document.

I don't know if changing documents in outdated software to .txt would work on a PC, but it certainly does on Macs.

Most of the people reading this probably think what I did was obvious but, as an official techno-idiot, it made me proud.

Photos

When we got married and moved into our first apartment my husband said, "Pictures should be of people."

Ever since, although there is some art work on the walls in other rooms, our living rooms have always had a group of photos of family members on one wall. Other pictures of our kids and grandkids stand in frames on bookshelves and dressers throughout the house.

Some of the photos on the wall are of my ancestors and were taken in the 1800s, well over 100 years ago. In order to protect them from sunlight the frames contain ultra-violet resistant glass or plastic and a few of the pictures are actually copies of the originals which were scanned and printed from my computer so the originals can be kept safely in dark places.

I look at the pictures on the wall every day.

Long ago cameras could only take twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six pictures on a roll of film and now we can easily take hundreds - or even thousands - of shots with our digital cameras. But will those pictures still be viewable in a hundred years?

Technology keeps changing and in a few decades we may not be able to access pictures taken today.  And even if we print out copies on photo grade paper we don't know how long it will take for the ink to fade away.

That's why when I take an especially good picture of grandkids or other family members I have it printed at my local drugstore. That doesn't cost much and it seems worth it to be sure the picture will be available for future generations to see.

Maybe one of them will think pictures should be of people and want to display them on a wall.