Before Technology

What did we do before so much technology?  In my opinion, we had more fun, we weren’t scared our ‘fun’ would be plastered all over for the world to see.  It’s one thing to have a moment of embarrassment when your friends bring it up but it’s another thing to be constantly reminded of it because it’s on everyone’s phone, posted on Facebook or God forbid, on YouTube.

I recently got together with a longtime friend and as always, we reminisced, and we laughed and laughed a lot.  There were no cell phone pictures to pull up, there were no cell phone videos to show, there were no Facebook posts or pictures to find and there were no YouTube videos to watch.  It was just us remembering the events and laughing.  We had to tell the stories, we had to actually dig in our memory banks.  Parts one of us forgot and parts one of us remembered more.  That’s why I wrote The Birthday Tribute, it brought those memories back to the forefront, plus some memories I may never share…..wouldn’t want to ruin my reputation.

Obviously we had cameras and video cameras back then but that meant we had to remember to bring them with us.  If we did remember our camera then we had to actually go and get the film developed.  Hard to say how many undeveloped films are in boxes or junk drawers.  If someone did have a video camera, good luck wanting to bring it, they were the size of a microwave and not quite so easy to use.  The moment is what we lived for, not the proof of the moment.

There is a video tape floating around of a couple of us skinny dipping in the early 90’s at a Holiday Inn.  I sure hope that’s lost in a junk drawer or box somewhere and doesn’t suddenly show up online.  Only a handful of us actually saw it.  I’ll have to completely embarrass myself and write about that soon.  But I digress.

People have very few secrets now.  Back in the day (whenever that might have been), word of mouth is how we planned parties.  Now, people post it on Facebook, send text messages or emails.  The youth of today wonder why parties get busted.  Duh, they have no idea who is reading those messages, parents do still monitor phones and computers and they’re friends with their kids on Facebook.  They’re basically telling on themselves.  They’re even posting pictures of themselves online for everyone to see, including colleges, jobs and potential dates.  Nothing is sacred anymore.  I’m so thankful we didn’t have all that when I was in school.  I wouldn’t have gotten into college, got a job or ever found a date.   Certain stories should be shared after you make your own impression and certain stories should never be shared.

We also had to actually speak to people, have conversations with friends and family.  No email, no text messaging, etc.  You pretty much had to say it to someone’s face, unless of course you wanted to pass them a note, which of course was dangerous because someone else might see.  That’s one thing I’m thankful for with Idaho, he doesn’t have texting on his phone and doesn’t have a computer.  We actually have to talk to each other, weird, I know.  I thoroughly enjoy that part of our relationship though…..shocking that I like to talk, isn’t it?

There’s times I’m thankful for technology and there’s times I curse it.  One of my favorite things is to reminisce about events we experienced and lived through.  But, my favorite thing, is to never mention those events I don’t want anyone to know about.