The Daily Post had a great question this week: Of all the technologies that have gone extinct in your lifetime, which one do you miss the most?
Either I'm getting old fast or technology is just advancing rapidly. Because quite a few things that I grew up with have become extinct in my lifetime. Kids React To Technology has a couple great videos - one where kids try to figure out how to use a Walkman, and one where they try and use a rotary dial phone. I grew up with both those things but it's fun to see children of today react to them. They really do seem unreasonably hard to use. I remember thinking how great the Walkman was when they first came out with it. Portable music! But I can't imagine trading it for my Shuffle now.
But there's one piece of technology that I still feel nostalgic for - the good old slide projector. It doesn't have the instant gratification of posting pictures on Facebook but then pictures didn't have the same throwaway quality they do now. Looking at pictures was an event. I remember Dad setting up the screen and getting the projector ready. We'd head down to the basement with snacks and settle in with a Pic-a-Pop drink. Then we'd go through a few carousels of slides - reminiscing about trips we had taken, or just laughing over family photos.
I guess it's not the technology I'm nostalgic for so much as how we used it. Looking at pictures was a family affair. It was something that we did together and that brought us closer. I have wonderful memories of those evenings in the basement, listening to the whir and click of the slide projector.
Either I'm getting old fast or technology is just advancing rapidly. Because quite a few things that I grew up with have become extinct in my lifetime. Kids React To Technology has a couple great videos - one where kids try to figure out how to use a Walkman, and one where they try and use a rotary dial phone. I grew up with both those things but it's fun to see children of today react to them. They really do seem unreasonably hard to use. I remember thinking how great the Walkman was when they first came out with it. Portable music! But I can't imagine trading it for my Shuffle now.
But there's one piece of technology that I still feel nostalgic for - the good old slide projector. It doesn't have the instant gratification of posting pictures on Facebook but then pictures didn't have the same throwaway quality they do now. Looking at pictures was an event. I remember Dad setting up the screen and getting the projector ready. We'd head down to the basement with snacks and settle in with a Pic-a-Pop drink. Then we'd go through a few carousels of slides - reminiscing about trips we had taken, or just laughing over family photos.
I guess it's not the technology I'm nostalgic for so much as how we used it. Looking at pictures was a family affair. It was something that we did together and that brought us closer. I have wonderful memories of those evenings in the basement, listening to the whir and click of the slide projector.