Technology Over Time

My Dad had been a pro athlete, and remained an avid sports fan after his playing days ended. He watched televised sports all weekend, football his first choice, but he followed tennis and golf (games he played) and even some basketball and baseball.

As kids, we got to watch Saturday morning cartoons (black and white in those days) as it was not a prime sports time. That was pretty well it for our weekend viewing. Greatest day ever was when we got a second television.

Moving ahead it was color TV, then VHS, DVD, High Definition and my-can’t-live-without DVR.

My grandmother was born in 1899. I used to marvel at the changes she had lived through in her lifetime. As a child living in the hills of West Virginia, she saw her father, a doctor, make his rounds on horseback.

Science and technology have moved ahead in leaps and bounds, and I find myself experiencing what she must have felt, that things are changing faster than I can keep up.

For those of us who didn’t use computers in the workplace, our knowledge can be limited to what’s required for us to use the internet and the various forms of social media.

We have cell phones now (or I should say some, most, people have cell phones). The ability to talk, text and message, no matter where you are, or where the other person is, makes one always available, and makes privacy and peace and quiet seem a thing of the past. My simple land line with call-message and call-display seems archaic, but not as bad as the old black dial phone of my youth.

And then there’s television. As I write this I’m watching a show I’ve saved on my DVR, my digital video recorder. I have a flat screen TV with high definition, and way too many channels to choose from.

My Dad would be amazed if he could see the sports channels available. He’d be sports all day, all the time. It would have been my Mom who needed that second set.

Hey John, I think there’s a bit of that old saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” here. You are your Father’s son. What are you going to watch when football season is finally done with the Super Bowl this weekend?