Life Past 30

My daughter, who is 10 years old, started using the computer when she was 5 and is well on her way to becoming a computer expert.  She can answer questions about changing a computer profile, linking it to the XBOX 360, and reconfigure her settings to her liking.  She creates her own “walk throughs” for her favorite video games and also knows how to make video game cheats.  All this knowledge was acquired in 5 short years.  Many years ago, it was a lot different for children than it is today.  People in my age group, 70’s babies, had to learn the ins and outs of computers the hard and long way.  The children of today have everything at their finger tips and they seem to learn at a faster pace than we did.   

The first time I touched a computer was in 1982.  I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen since the Atari 2600.  My mind raced as I tried to discover everything about it, from how it worked to exactly what it could do.  To my surprise, it didn’t do nearly as much as I wanted it to, but I still loved using it.  Everyday, I would turn it on just to try and discover a secret that may have escaped me.  No such luck.  Boredom eventually set in and ended up using only the computer at school.  Despite this ”computer slump” I was in, I continued to want more from computers and kept myself updated on the newer models that were being released.  You can imagine how happy I was as I witnessed computers that allowed users to make and print pictures, but nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. 

Now, in 2008, I watch my daughter learn something new everyday like the knowledge already existed in her head.  It’s as though she just needed something to bring it out.  When she first started using the computer, she was a little nervous and her hand barely covered the mouse.  Now she moves the mouse so quickly you can barely keep up with the movements.  Oh, she also types 40 words a minute…self taught.  I simply can’t help thinking how far technology has come from the days when I was her age and everyone got excited about PC’s that had 20K of hard drive space.  What really gets me thinking is how quickly the children of recent years adapt to everything electronic.  It’s almost scary.  I forgot to mention that she hasn’t played with dolls since she was 7 and thinks that anything that isn’t electronic is a waste time.  I’m sure her views will change as she matures, but for now, she’s definitely a techie.