I had a conversation with my massage therapist not too long ago. (Let's be serious, I see her more than my husband some weeks, depending on his shifts. She and I converse all the time.)
This particular day we were talking about learning to wear make-up and she said her daughter had started. "If this continues," she said, "I think I'll take her to a professional for some tips."
I cleared my throat. "Here's news, my friend. It's gonna continue. Kids don't go backward."
Sort of like the digital age. Gadgets leap ahead of me and disappear before I even know what they are. I'll fess up that I don't know what the difference between blue-ray and bluetooth is and HDTV escapes me completely. I just know I'm supposed to nod my head and tell my husband of course we should get it.
This comes on the heels of my Dad giving us a TV as big as the bed his grandfather built quite literally a hundred years ago.
The TV needed a new bulb, Dad wanted a smaller one anyway (What? Talk to any other man and size definitely matters.) But the TV was only a few years old so my husband leapt on the opportunity to upgrade for the low, low cost of a sore back and a new bulb.
Hubby quickly discovered that the TV is already obsolete. (A victim of a Beta/VHS kind of struggle for market supremacy. This particular technology lost.)
But it's not uncommon for technology to outlast its usefulness just as it's catching on. Look at CD's and DVD's. We haven't finished replacing all our favorite LP's and we're already switching to downloading to iPhones and iPods.
Do you know a guy at work had the nerve to tell me a new iPhone is in the works? I had to bite back a wail of anguish. After what I paid for that thing?! But electronics age in dog years. One year is like seven and by the time a gadget is eight, you're aware it needs to be put down, but you can't quite muster the courage.
This is why a lot of people hesitate to jump in. Surely it will settle down soon into something standard and predictable. Why waste money buying in before it does? Isn't it all a fad?
Sorry, but no. This is where we live now people: in the Age of Aquarius, ruler of computers and new technology. (I don't make this stuff up, I just report it.)
I'm not saying it's right, cheap or easy. I'm sayin', go ahead and fight it all you want, but like a certain little girl's, the face of our lives has changed. It's not going back to a simpler time.
All we can do is embrace it and try to keep up.
And possibly consult a professional for some tips.
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