Generation Wired

~~I was born in 1982. According to most of the things I've read, this makes me Gen-Y, although I'm sure I read an article somewhere that classes me as Gen-X. Just.~~

I grew up with computers. I don't remember ever not having one in the house, though I'm sure there must have been a point when we didn't. I learned to type rather quickly when my father used the computer as a bribe in and of itself. Half an hour of Typequick and I was allowed to play on the computer - maths and spelling games mostly, though Alley Cat and some dinosaur game were also popular. Eventually he made it a challenge - whoever out of my sister and I learnt to type the fastest, would get $50.00, and since my sister had no interest in the games offered as instant reward, I won.

Over the years I've learnt to work various operating systems. I was confused beyond belief when my father first installed something called "windows" on the computer, and refused to use it. If it was my turn and Windows was open, I would immediately exit to DOS so I could find my way around. "cd.." and "dir/w" were my friends. Then, just as I got used to Windows, it changed. He installed a different one, and the 3.1 I had finally figured out how to work was no longer there. Suddenly, I had to tell the computer to turn off before I could push the off button, or it got sulky and refused to work. Not only that, DOS had become a hard-to-get-to lesser choice, despite being necessary for everything I used the computer for.

The changes in Windows since have been comparatively minor (and occasionally welcome - no longer do we need to push the off button after telling the computer to turn off), but the changes in the computers themselves have been huge. For one, no longer content with floppy-floppy disks and hard-floppy disks, CDs were added to the computer. The number of available drives became ridiculous. Especially since at one point we had 3 separate hard-drives, because our machine wouldn't accept a drive bigger than 2GB could exist. So we had A: (floppy-floppy), B: (hard-floppy), C: D: and E: (hard drives) and F: our super fast 8speed CD drive which was the envy of all my friends. Half my games were either on the big old "floppy" floppy disks or needed a bootdisk to run, but the newer ones on CD ran so smooth on our super-fast machine. And what amazing games they were. Games that took up so much file space the manufacturers decided not to bother spreading them over 8 floppy disks, but put the whole game on one CD.

It wasn't just computers though. Our mobile phone was amazing. Dad could take this phone anywhere and it would work. It didn't need to be plugged into the wall, and it had almost the same number as our landline. It would be put on the table when we went to restaurants, partly so everyone could see we had one, partly because at nearly the size of a house brick, it was far too large to fit in a pocket.

My father also brought the internet to our house fairly early for my peer-group. We were online in 95, and at one point we were paying only $5.00/hr for access, with a 28.8 modem. Super, super fast. And with 3 telephone lines (not including the mobile) I could chat online to friends in the US while my father sent a fax for work and my mother was on the phone.

My children aren't going to understand any of this. Mobile the size of a brick? 28.8 speed modem that sings at you as you connect?? 2GB hard drive??? Computer game on a floppy disk????? Since before he could talk, Critterbug has been "talking" on a mobile barely bigger than his hand. The only computers he's familiar with are laptops, and I doubt he's ever even seen a floppy disk. People may complain that my generation are wired, constantly talking on their mobiles, facebooking from their crackberries and talking into the air with their bluetooth headsets, but look at our kids. They have no other choice. Its a wonder they arent implanted with computerchips at birth.