Adam Earnheardt
  • Blog
  • Welcome
  • About
  • Contact
  • Speaking
  • CV
  • Blog
  • Welcome
  • About
  • Contact
  • Speaking
  • CV

A Tech Rant, by Old Man Earnheardt (Pt 1)

4/26/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
As a social media columnist and teacher, I regularly interact with folks who give me recommendations on new apps and other tech.

“Try this,” a friend exclaims. “It’ll change your life.”

Everyone means well. After all, I proudly wear the mantle of early adopter. I have the charges on my credit card statements to prove it, from my good friends at Google Play and iTunes.

The other day, a student suggested I use Box instead of Dropbox or Google Drive for cloud-based, file sharing. I resisted, only to watch the young’un roll his eyes at me in disgust.

Of course, the kid didn’t want to change his tech to accommodate mine.

Didn’t I know that Dropbox and Google Drive were for old people?

What I wanted to say, but didn’t at the time, is “let me tell you a thing or two about technology, you little punk.”

Of course, I would never talk this way to a student.

But the eye roll was enough to curl my old man ear hair.

Here’s why:

When I was growing up, we played video games on bulky machines in our living rooms.

Those, “throwback” consoles you young’uns like so much were our nirvana.

When you died in a level, there was no going back to the same part of a game. You went back to the beginning.

Those things in your pockets that allow you to take photos and video of every morsel of food you eat or silly animal you see? I had to major in communication to get my hands on that kind of tech.

I edited my video on what were essentially two interconnected VCRs.

It sometimes took hours to get one good minute of footage.

My audio often crackled because, well, one wrong move with the long microphone cord would result in “literal” crossed wires.

I shot my pictures on black and white 35-millimeter film and developed them in a darkroom using harsh chemicals that your mommy would never allow your precious little fingers to touch.

These days, we need to keep our digits Purelled and pristine to operate touchscreens.

Nope. Back in my day, a camera was a camera and everyone knew you were taking his or her picture.

Don’t even get me started on “risque” photos.

I still have vague flashbacks to college parties, kegs in basements and Polaroid cameras. I’m really hoping those never end up on Facebook.

It may seem strange for a tech columnist to prattle on about analog media, but it was comforting to know that if the VCR ate your tape, you could use a pencil to fix it, not stare at a screen with messages about buffering and lost connections.

Back in my day, we had some control when using mechanical devices.

I miss that control.

Rant part two, coming next week.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr. Adam C. Earnheardt is special assistant to the provost and professor of communication in the department of communication at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, OH, USA where he also directs the graduate program in professional communication.  He researches and writes on a variety of topics including communication technologies, relationships, and sports (with an emphasis on fandom). His work has appeared in Mahoning Matters as well as The Vindicator and Tribune-Chronicle newspapers.

    Categories

    All
    Social Media

    Archives

    July 2023
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly