Today I am thankful for computers. They have gone through many incarnations within my lifetime and from Kidpix to Google Chrome, I have used and enjoyed them immensely.
I can't even imagine what college would have been like if I hadn't had a computer. Research and simply writing would have taken so much longer. I don't know if I could have completed both majors in four years without my computer. With the sheer amount of time you need to spend backstage when you are a theatre major, if you have your laptop, you can start writing your paper on the Aeneid and finish your Latin homework and still be on stage in time for "Sunrise, Sunset."
With the internet, it's easy to send pictures to my sister or talk face-to-face even though she is almost 3,000 miles away (OK not exactly easy *cough cough* Skype *cough cough* living in the middle of nowhere with the worst connection ever *cough cough* but it can be done).
I can network with my friends from college who live all over the country. I can finally find out that I am not the only geek in the universe who likes science fiction and musicals. I can explore the inner workings of whatever industry interests me. I can buy books and find out when the new Orson Scott Card/ Brandon Sanderson/ Terry Prattchett book will arrive. I can revise and update my resume and print out as many as I need when I need them. I discovered my own musical taste beyond musicals and the music my parents like. I can buy Scripture Scouts CDs for my baby brother for his birthday.
Any of these things would have been not impossible, but extremely difficult and/or time consuming even 30 years ago. And for all these things that computers can do, I am thankful.
Hey, we do NOT live in the middle of nowhere. Go to Texas and spend four hours traveling across the RANGE in search of the nearest grocery store. So our internet is a little slow...there are children starving in Mississippi (don't have to say Africa anymore, even though that's true, too). When I was writing papers, I had to START OVER when I made too many mistakes because the white-out looked sloppy (I used an ancient gadget called an electric typewriter). I had nightmares about margins and footnotes. I begged my mom to help me. You are soooooo lucky! Fortunately, I had kids and waited a few years to finish my college education and by then computers had arrived for the masses. (Sound of angels singing Halleluiah!)
ReplyDelete