Progress

One of the students' listening exercises said the first computer was made in 1944, but it wasn't until what--the 80s?--that they became common.  Then they became important incredibly quickly.  I can remember how exciting it was when we got our first home computer.  And the internet--WOW--how neat was that!  I can't remember exactly when we got it; I was probably between 8~12 years old.  In elementary school I had to do my first research paper, and I remember Mom showing me how to look up things in the card catalogue--you know, the one with the actual cards in the drawers and that kids these days have probably never seen!  Then I learned how to take notes from the books and write down the info I needed to properly cite the books.  Our local library didn't have an adequate selection of books on that topic, so we visited another library, used inter-library loan, and it took a long time to get all of the information that I needed.  (I can't remember the paper's topic.)

By university, computers were everywhere.  By then when faced with a research paper, I first used the internet to gain an elementary knowledge of the subject, narrow the topic, and determine competent authors.  Only then would I visit the library to get nearly every book they had vaguely related to the topic.  Over the next couple of months I would read (or at least skim) the books, take notes, and make an outline.  Come time to actually write the paper (usually a couple of days before it was due!) it was guaranteed that I'd be missing some vital info.  As long as I cited plenty of books, then I could pull the needed info from the 'net and cite that article.  In the pre-internet days I would have had to make a last minute run to the library or have an incomplete paper.

Technology is changing so quickly.  Tanya asked me yesterday what a "blog" is.  It's such a part of my vocabulary now, along with "blogger." While I never use it, I understand "netizen" and all the other words that have been invented in the last 10 years or so.  Still, the majority of people are still learning much of the new technology.  I'm on the brink of getting my first digital camera, some time after they became popular.  My grandparents tell me stories of living with no electricity.  What stories will I have to tell?  I've already seen such changes in my life. 

In the same listening exercise, it said that man landed on the moon in 1969.  Sure, I knew that already, but sometimes dates don't sink in.  The kids (2nd graders) didn't understand the sentence, so I drew a picture for them--a crescent moon with a smiling stick-man with spiked hair standing on top.  They laughed at "E.T." and didn't believe that it was true.  I insisted that it was true and told them to ask their parents.  Seeing their amazement that man had been on the moon brought back the amazement to me.  It's a pretty grand thing to figure out how to make a rocket to put a man on the moon!  And it happened in my parents' lifetime!

Medical advances like organ transplants.....communication devices like cell phones......organizational devices like PDAs.....so much progress, so many things to make life easier.  Yet, we feel busier now than at any time in the past.  Perhaps we're trying to multi-task too much, or simply taking on too many things.  I've lost the point to this post.  Are advances good or bad?  Certainly some of both.  It's in how we use the advances that determine their benefits or detriments.