Techno Pop

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and slower that I can’t keep up with technology. I just can’t bob and weave like I used to. Or, maybe it’s the technology that’s moving too fast, even if I were younger and quicker. Whatever it is, I’m getting tired.

We didn’t even have a TV when I was young. It was a new medium and most people were content to get their news and entertainment from the radio, which generally monopolized a corner of the room.. When we wanted to communicate, we used the big, heavy, black telephone on the table, assuming our neighbor wasn’t already on the “party line” or, we wrote a letter. When we finally got a TV, we were astounded by the little black and white picture emanating from that thirteen inch screen. It was the wonder of the ages. But, it wasn’t enough. We wanted our in-home pictures to be bigger and in color. Technology helped.

Is it our dissatisfaction with whatever it is we have that causes this incurable need to make it better, faster, stronger? Or could it be the nature of the technology that has trouble keeping up with itself that necessitates innovations around every single corner, just to keep up? I don’t know. I’m too slow.

My 14 year old asked, last weekend, if she could get an “ap” for her ipod touch, which prompted my best Scooby-Doo impression: “Huh?”

I understand the need to keep up in today’s world. If you want to compete you have to be in the technological loop. I have done my best, but it seems that every time I feel a sense of pride because I’ve learned something new, it gets shot down by that sinking sense of drowning is a sea of “what the hell is that and how is it going to make my life easier?”

I remember writing a joke to use on my morning show when I first got to Dallas. It went something like this: “Technology is just moving too fast for me. This morning I passed a guy in a BMW and he faxed me the finger.” It worked for a minute. The other day someone sent me a “tweet” that said, “What’s a fax?”
To which I replied on Facebook, “What’s a tweet?” Make our life easier?

While everyone else is using a device to make phone calls, facebook, twitter, surf take and send pictures, download, upload and sideload (that one I made up), I’m still walking around with a little holster on my belt to carry a cell phone. Yes, I said it…..a cell phone. I use it to make phone calls and, occasionally, to text. I’ve just about got the hang of it, but, honestly, to walk around with all of the latest technology dripping from my outer being would make me feel like those old guys who try to look young. Trust me there is nothing that looks dumber than a guy my age with his pants sagging around his knees, although, that style looks ridiculous to me no matter who is doing it. Do kids still do that? See….I can’t keep up. And…no-one asked for my opinion.

This technological age is amazing. My grandfather, in his life time, went from horse and buggy to watching man step foot on the moon. In my lifetime, I have gone from watching TV on the radio to tweeting on Twitter and talking to people via “Skype,” to which I once again invoke that great American cartoon dog who so appropriately said: “Huh?”


THAT’S HOW I FEEL……WHAT CAN I TELL YA’