Times they are a changing

When I was a wee lass, one of the coolest gifts I received was a personalized book. It detailed my fictitious adventures with a famous alligator who would come and visit me and my friends (and my dog) at my house. It was AWESOME. I still have what remains of it (four tattered pages) and still get a little excited (lo these 30 years later) when I read it.

Fast forward to present day, the equivalent of my personalized book? A personalized DVD. The Mud Puddle will be a proud owner this Christmas of his own Dora DVD complete with his picture and name included in the story. This is just one example of the difference between generations, the idea remains the same but the delivery method gets all high tech.

The Mud Puddle has computer time at daycare. (The irony that they use an old fashioned oven timer to clock each child’s turn is not lost on me). He loves ‘puter time’. At his age, my idea of high tech fun was spinning the dial on the tv so fast it fell off. He knows how to use a mouse and turn it on and off (I shudder when he doesn’t go through the proper power down procedure, but it isn’t my computer he is messing with).

I am curious to see how far this generation of kids who have never known a world without computers, the Internet, or DVDs makes its way in the future. It is like that email that circulates every year talking about how this generation doesn’t know life with out CDs or VCRs. That is funny, the idea that the Mud Puddle’s generation won’t know life with out TiVo or iPods is straight out of science fiction. Perhaps they will drive around in the hover crafts we have been dreaming of since the 50s.

I am glad that he still enjoys the classic toys, Lincoln logs, Candy Land, I would be sad if he missed out on those games that use your noggin more than your mouse. I have fond memories of those games and it is fun for me to play along.

I am sure he will surpass my computer savvy by the time he is four and I will be asking him the equivalent of ‘Can you fix the clock on my VCR? It always blinks 12.” I just hope that he will be patient with his tech illiterate mom.

Man, am I getting OLD.