The impact of technology

[Mumble]

Whilst I was away recently, I was travelling in some areas where I didn't want to be using my digital camera in case it got stolen or was damaged so opted for disposable cameras with real films. Today I went to pick up my prints; it's so long since I've done this, I'd forgotten the whole anticipation and excitement over waiting for film to be developed and getting the prints back, as everything is instant with digital cameras and often the pictures stay on the computer rather than being turned into real prints.

 

It made me think about what else we have lost or children will not experience anymore as we strive to make things better through digitalisation. Baddad mentioned board games on the Play-station; but isn't part of the fun of real board games knocking down others' monopoly houses 'accidentally' with the dice and arguing over who packs the game away?

 

I realise I'm far too young to be getting nostalgic but it got me thinking. Hmm, maybe I should start ordering in the botox and anti-wrinkle Polly-filler; perhaps I really am getting old!

[Karen A]

If you are old what am I ...................

[baddad]

GATEFOLD ALBUM SLEEVES

and all the other wonderful, wonderful things you associate with vinyl like 'warmth' and the crackle that made your copy absolutely unique.

a sense of perspective... relating that to music again, you had a finite number of albums and a finite amount of time you could listen to them. Laying in bed with a hangover on a Saturday morning and working your way through 5 or 6 albums before finally getting out to have a shower and something to eat.. cueing them up on the Sharps SG315e you'd spent almost a year saving up to buy and positioning the speakers as close to your ears as the cables would allow before whacking the volume up to 11. An album was a HUGE investment - hours spent in the local record shop pouring through rack after rack before making a choice...

Now albums are pretty much disposable - including the music on them. One you really love might get half a dozen plays before consigned to the great wall of CD's you'll never get time to listen to in full again; instead you cherry pick a few tracks from your HDD for download to your MP3 player, which has more tracks on it than you could ever play in the time remaining to you on earth so you use 'shuffle' to sort it all out for you...

Same applies to photography: About ten years ago I traded in my SLR and lenses as lugging all that lot about down the park just got in the way of pushing the swings. Now i've got megapixels coming out of my **** but can't be bothered even to take the teeny tiny digital out... i took about three photos on holiday this year, and haven't even bothered transfering them to the PC yet let alone printing one of them off.

We have TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING... and instead of appreciating it we just mumble and moan 'cos it's not quite the latest model or it hasn't got the such-and-such-feature or app that the so-and-so has got (and that everyone who owns one of the so-and-sos will tell you is SO absolutely necessary despite the fact that they've only ever used it once, and that was in 'demo mode')...

 

Anyhoo - must dash... I'm orf to buy myself some more sh*t from Amazon to cheer myself up. what a downer this thread turned out to be!

 

L&P

 

BD

[JsMum]

I only just picked up my disposable camera photos from last year and only around five or six are viable photos, the rest are not very picture quality, where as the digital camera I dispose of the photos straight away what I dont want, only keeping the onces I do, problem I have now, is that my memory card lets me take over 300 photos, but I cant afford the £50 or so pounds to get developed and collect them, Im sure there great, but have had to wait for the pennies to come rolling in first.

 

I think you do have a great point of the way were moving on though and that our children dont experience some of the emotions, feelings we went throw as kids.

 

Do you remember the typewriter, now its keyboards but slowly there been phased out now its Toutch screen techology!

 

I love getting away from the techno world and recently went camping, though J cheated as he had his Ipod, but it was still a good break from TV/DVD/Telephone, normal cooking equiptment and Js beloved XBOX, which we all coped well with in the end, we snuggled together in the tent eating Soup on a little cooking stove, and it was great fun, in the evening we played cards, it was such a striking difference to how we would of spent the night if we were at home with the mod cons, though I didnt get much sleep we did have a good time.

 

camping is on the calander for next year, so we cant miss the techo world that much.

 

JsMumx

Edited September 12, 2010 by JsMum

[Mumble]

Do you remember the typewriter, now its keyboards but slowly there been phased out now its Touch screen technology!

:lol: My little sister and I were discussing this and the immense differences between our undergraduate university experiences, despite there only being 8 years between us.

 

When I went to uni in 1997, very very few students had their own desktop PC and they tended to be thought of as a bit of a show off if they did. I worked really long hours to save up enough pennies to buy an electric word processor (basically a fancy type writer but you could at least edit before printing - but it was just typing, no graphics and no colour) for my assignments. I was introduced to the Internet and we were advanced on our campus as we had 4 Internet connected computers!! I did some basic programming as part of my course - this was done on BBC computers in black and white. If I needed to find a library resource, I had to go through drawers of little cards and read real books and journals.

 

When my sister went 8 years later it was the expectation that they all had their own wireless Internet blue-tooth compatible laptops, it is common to have your own scanner and printer and the majority of her research is done via the Internet or electronic library catalogues and journals.

 

I always find this difference amazing because whilst we're within things moving on, we don't tend to notice.

[chris54]

When I was a lad (Child) holiday photos were something that you treasured. Dad only ever got one reel of Ilford film for his box brownie,8 photos to a reel. Posing for the camera, hoping they would come out, forgetting to wind on the film and getting double exposures. You had to wait for the right weather, bright but not to sunny or everything looked all pale. Then waiting for the film to come back from the chemist. People dont know they're living now days.

 

Don't start me on about LPs, I only recently got a deck to play all my old LP record on. Been stuck in the cupboard for the last 20 odd years.

[call me jaded]

Vinyl's coming back, so my uber-trendy clubbing nephew was telling me.

 

My dad used to develop and print his own photos. We were laughing yesterday about our 'darkroom' which was the cupboard under the stairs with someone holding a blanket over the door so that no crack of light could get through. Your arms would really ache. The prints were black and white and tiny, about 2.5" square. My mum still has loads of them - Sunday cycle rides to the countryside feature quite heavily and the fashions are hilarious.

 

We get our children to make little films on holiday. It's lovely to get a child's eye view.

[baddad]

Vinyl's coming back, so my uber-trendy clubbing nephew was telling me.

 

 

It's never really gone away - but sadly that's more about the White Label and dance side of things than mainstream.

I've just finally got aroung to freecyling all my Hi-Fi that was gathering dust in the attic, including the turntable. I recorded my vinyl to minidisc and have kept one minidisc 'walkman' for the final transfer to HD and CD at some point, but it's probably a labour of love that will be a love labour lost (that is, i'll never actually get around to it!). The biggest problem with hi-fi is you need space - even my little (by comparison) Royd Minstrel floorstanders took up more room than I could afford, and two 'stacks' for Turntable/CD Player/Minidsic recorder/Cassette recorder/Tuner & Amp have been replaced by the teeniest tiniest 'cube' that in all honesty, given the appalling state of my rock and rolled out lugholes these days, is probably as good as it needs to be sound quality wise.

Nope, all that space is now dedicated to Ben's growing heap of games consoles and all the paraphanalia that goes with them, and i'm starting to think i'll have to rip all my CD's to MP3 and consign all the jewel cases to the attic where the hi-fi used to be! Ho hum... TBH, it's the 'ritual' I miss, I think, and the time to indulge myself with it. In some ways, the fact that I can carry so much on an MP3 and take it for a nice walk around the lake on a sunny day is a new ritual I enjoy just as much!

 

Stumbling around in a darkroom was great fun, as was holding an old pair of tights over the lens to get a 'soft focus' effect or waving a hand across it to 'burn in' some extra light and shade and contrast. All the chemical stains on the carpet in the spare room from spillages were less fun, as were all the scars to paintwork from adhesive tape used to hold the 'blackout screens' (cardboard boxes) to the window frames.

 

Another major loss is digital telly etc. While the beeb still produce some amazing quality TV the overall 'dumbing down' from having 100's of channels available 24/7 can be measured by sh!te like Big Brother, X-Factor, Dancing on Dog eggs and all that other flotsam that washes up in our living rooms...

 

And HD TV - what a load of old tosh! And, yes, we've got one now, and it is a better picture and all that but it's still pointless... I mean, the pre HD picture can't have been that bad can it? I don't remember having to squint or avert my eyes during particularly 'busy' scenes do you? More cr*p we don't need but replace every few years anyway.

 

And MOBILE PHONES....... God i hate them. I'm not sure whether i hate mobile phones more than i hate 4x4's (and their drivers) or not but it's a close thing. And as for 4x4's being driven by mum's who are too timid to drive on a motorway but STILL think they can drive at 44 miles per hour in a built up area while talking on a MOBILE PHONE and navigate by following the dots on the SAT NAV rather than looking through the windscreen...

 

I tell you, if I ever get my hands on a rocket launcher and a couple of rounds of ammo there's gonna be a few less Mitsubishi Shoguns cruising around, and their child murdering 'cattle bars' won't protect 'em....

 

I pad - they're having a laugh aint they? What? You bought one? Muppet!

Kindle? tut... i arsk ya...

 

Twitter? TWITTER?? What a load of.....................

 

 

Whoops... my brain's just exploded.... time for bed............

[JsMum]

As an 80s kind oF kID I remember TV that had four channels. BB1, BB2 ITV and the newish channel Channel 4.

 

We had to wait for our faviourate programmes, and usually a whole WEEK, so Ateam, Buck Rodgers, Dr who, all weekly slots, now adays its three times a week or even daily soups and programmes, I remember I couldnt wait for the next weeks series to find out what was going to happen.

 

Now we have SKY TV and if your posher you have SKY PLUS TV and if your even posher than posh spice you have SKY PLUS HD.

 

The TV has jumped ahead now again,never mind HD now there is 3D TV, and the home cinema where it is projected on a white wall/screen.

 

Its going to blow us away soon as we are now in a era where we cant keep up, my phone, camera, are old now even though they arent actually even my washer mashince that has infered and gadgets galore is been outdated by newer models.

 

I remember my parents Twin tub that you had to sit ontop of the spinner or it would scoot across the kitchen, infact it caused fight with my sibs because they wanted to sit on the spinner!

 

I did have dreams though as a kid about how the future would look and it was a bit like back to the future where cars would be like hovercraft type vehcles and I thought we would more space type food and clothes, but were not there yet!

 

Technology is defo moving too fast.

 

JsMumx

[baddad]

As an 80s kind oF kID I remember TV that had four channels. BB1, BB2 ITV and the newish channel Channel 4.

 

We had to wait for our faviourate programmes, and usually a whole WEEK, so Ateam, Buck Rodgers, Dr who, all weekly slots, now adays its three times a week or even daily soups and programmes, I remember I couldnt wait for the next weeks series to find out what was going to happen.

 

Now we have SKY TV and if your posher you have SKY PLUS TV and if your even posher than posh spice you have SKY PLUS HD.

 

The TV has jumped ahead now again,never mind HD now there is 3D TV, and the home cinema where it is projected on a white wall/screen.

 

Its going to blow us away soon as we are now in a era where we cant keep up, my phone, camera, are old now even though they arent actually even my washer mashince that has infered and gadgets galore is been outdated by newer models.

 

I remember my parents Twin tub that you had to sit ontop of the spinner or it would scoot across the kitchen, infact it caused fight with my sibs because they wanted to sit on the spinner!

 

I did have dreams though as a kid about how the future would look and it was a bit like back to the future where cars would be like hovercraft type vehcles and I thought we would more space type food and clothes, but were not there yet!

 

Technology is defo moving too fast.

 

JsMumx

 

Ladies sitting on washing machines! Well I never! (disgusted of Tunbridge Wells...)

 

Mind you, if it's good enough for

 

 

who am I to judge?

 

On a slightly more serious note, my sister got electrocuted by our old twin tub when it sprung a leak. My mum went to push her away, and of course added herself to the circuit and started doing the 240v jig herself. Oh how we laughed... happy days... being the sensible one I pushed the mains lead to 'off' using the giant wooden tongs me mam used for feeding stuff into the mangle.

 

As for childhood visions of the future WHERE'S MY JET-PACK?? And, no, I don't want one of those death traps Mitchell & Webb were advertising the other week I want the model George Jetsen used. And I want a packet of 'Instant Dinner' like they had on bugs bunny etc - where you add a couple of drops of water to a pile of dust and get a steaming tower of roast turkey, veg and all the trimmings, including crockery and a knife and fork. And what happened to Moonbase Alpha (Space 1999) and the various cities under the sea (stingray, marine boy, etc etc) we were promised?

 

All that great stuff we should have got and what do we get instead? I('m a moron with more money than sense)Pads, 4x4 child killers, mobile bleeding phones and the Fear Factor advertising pitches they spawned, Ant & Dec bullying people in the jungle, Davina McCall squawking like a half-throttled chicken in the middle of an industrial estate, Simon Cowell abusing the mentally ill at home and abroad, etc etc etc. We wuz sold a pup, people, we wuz sold a pup

 

Edited September 13, 2010 by baddad

[call me jaded]

As an 80s kind oF kID I remember TV that had four channels. BB1, BB2 ITV and the newish channel Channel 4.

 

We had to wait for our faviourate programmes, and usually a whole WEEK, so Ateam, Buck Rodgers, Dr who, all weekly slots, now adays its three times a week or even daily soups and programmes, I remember I couldnt wait for the next weeks series to find out what was going to happen.

 

Now we have SKY TV and if your posher you have SKY PLUS TV and if your even posher than posh spice you have SKY PLUS HD.

 

The TV has jumped ahead now again,never mind HD now there is 3D TV, and the home cinema where it is projected on a white wall/screen.

 

 

WE are are DEAD posh as we were the first people we knew to have Sky and I used to come home from a hard day's shopping to find various members of DH's football team watching the Sunday match, usually with a pile of kit going through the washer/dryer. The number of Man Utd fans that would just be dropping by...

[Kathryn]

Ah yes, the good old days.... I never saw a word processor till I was 21. I find it hard to believe that I wrote all my university essays by hand - there must have been a time when I thought in complete coherent sentences and just churned them out without a single error, but I could never do that now.

 

I miss proper ringing phones with dials - you had to ensure you turned them all the way round or you'd get a wrong number. Sitting in the draughty hallway because you couldn't go further than the cord could reach. But at least you could get away from the phone: what we've lost most of all is privacy - remember the days when you could leave the house and nobody could contact you or even leave a message on an answerphone for when you got back?

 

The thing I don't miss at all is my mum's pressure cooker - the horrible thing would gently bubble away and then blow its top really suddenly and it used to scare the life out of me. When it was on the stove I would scoot through the kitchen with my fingers in my ears convinced it was lying in wait for me. Thank goodness for microwaves, a far less traumatic way to cook food quickly!

 

I could go on for hours about how different things were in my day. As my son once said to me: " mum, the olden days are finished. Get over it."

 

K x

Edited September 13, 2010 by Kathryn

[Canopus]

When I went to uni in 1997, very very few students had their own desktop PC and they tended to be thought of as a bit of a show off if they did. I worked really long hours to save up enough pennies to buy an electric word processor (basically a fancy type writer but you could at least edit before printing - but it was just typing, no graphics and no colour) for my assignments. I was introduced to the Internet and we were advanced on our campus as we had 4 Internet connected computers!! I did some basic programming as part of my course - this was done on BBC computers in black and white. If I needed to find a library resource, I had to go through drawers of little cards and read real books and journals.

 

That's worse than when I started as an undergrad in 1995. I would say that about 3 out of 4 students on my course brought a computer with them. Many were 386 or 486 machines running Windows 3 and a handful of students owned Amigas or really old Apple Macs. The uni had a room with about 25 internet connected computers running Netscape. The library catalogue was a text based application that ran on an ancient minicomputer accessed using dumb terminals with monochrome screens.

 

My dad used to develop and print his own photos. We were laughing yesterday about our 'darkroom' which was the cupboard under the stairs with someone holding a blanket over the door so that no crack of light could get through. Your arms would really ache. The prints were black and white and tiny, about 2.5" square. My mum still has loads of them - Sunday cycle rides to the countryside feature quite heavily and the fashions are hilarious.

 

My science teacher was a photography freak and had a darkroom in a cupboard under the stairs back in 1990. I wonder what his view is of digital cameras.

 

I miss proper ringing phones with dials - you had to ensure you turned them all the way round or you'd get a wrong number.

 

Dial phones are available on ebay. I miss the telephone network back in the days of electromechanical telephone exchanges with all its quirks and clicks and crackles. It could be pain at times but the modern digital system is just so boring in comparison.