How Far We've Come

When I was a kid, and technology was just starting to emerge, I used to dream about what life would be like when I was an adult and things got that much more advanced.

While we have yet to have a vehicle that floats on air like the one Luke Skywalker used in "Star Wars", we do now have the capacity to, quite easily, communicate with each other in such a way that we are actually seeing each other as well as hearing each other. While I wouldn't have used the name "Video Chat" back then, what we have now is what I used to dream of then - and, when I step back and look at the big picture, it really is quite astounding.

This is all coming up in my mind because, yesterday, Michele and I began watching the "Bionic Woman" DVD set I got her for Christmas. The series first started airing in 1976 - when I was about four years old. TV-wise, it doesn't seem that long ago. However, when you see the technology (or lack of) that they had, OH MY GOODNESS! For one, it makes me feel decrepit, and two, I realize just how far we've come. From the land line rotary phones, to even the bedside clocks that "flipped" the digits....And, don't even get me started as to what a hospital room looked like, or an FBI computer was able to do... in fact, we called Brayden in to see what "Jaime Sommers" had to use to get oxygen into her while laying comatose in the hospital. Brayden couldn't stop laughing at the ugly green tubes with its long nostril ends, and all of a sudden the "very subtle" clear tubing he had to wear didn't seem so bad.

So, for all of the ways we've improved, how amazing and exciting. But, I have to admit, it's come with its negative pitfalls too - which are obvious. I'm realizing that the very thing I thought would be so cool as a kid is actually kind of something I don't really like. This whole "video chat" thing...(i.e. Skype) - um, not such a big fan in general. Yes, the idea is phenomenal, but I'm just gonna throw it out there that I'm too vain to enjoy it. I'm guessing I'll get over myself eventually and get used to it, but I find I spend far too much time analyzing how many chins I appear to have in the image of myself being projected than I am the conversation! (Not to mention my hair, my zits, etc, etc.....). I wonder if, when the first telephones were being used (for the record....WAY before my time....) - people had to adjust (uncomfortably) to hearing their own voice? I suppose if they can adapt, so can I......because I don't think this new-fangled technology is going to go away.....