My grandpa worked for a government contractor running a multi-million dollar research lab developing secret stuffs for NATO allies. He always had higher-end computers at his house that were fun to play with. He had the newest modems before anyone else had them, CD burners that came in these weird cartridges before practically anyone knew what a CD burner was, a home color printer that had to have been pretty early tech as it had the holes down the side you had to tear off, and even a photo scanner built into his 386 tower that pulled in 4x6 photos that was pretty crazy. Even my dad also had some pretty decent computers that he did CAD work on. These memories are from the late 80s onwards. So I was exposed to this stuff as a toddler and child. Even my elementary school had some Macs and we would play games like Oregon Trail. I played lots of games on 5 1/4" floppy disk (and later on like 10 3 1/2" floppy disks). Besides educational games we also had some 80s arcade games. I remember my grandpa's old tower on Windows 3.1 running this 3D rendered game with this bird creature. My grandpa always said back then that computers blow away Nintendo for games and showed me that 3D bird game as proof. I wish I could remember what it was called. It might have been more of an animation than a game. My grandpa bought me tons of educational games where you could explore the human body in 3D and do things like fly-throughs of the heart and I remember this one 3D hand model that had layers for muscles, nerves and bone that was really fun to play with. I had another one for the space and the space shuttle, one that was an interactive encyclopedia, and another that was about meteorology. We got internet access at my home in 1996 when I was starting middle school. I feel like it definitely opened up a world of possibilities to me and let me discover what my passions are. I also had a Gameboy when I was 5 or 6, and Nintendo that my parents would play with me. In 1999 my grandpa bought me a digital camera for Christmas and it changed my life.
I think the key thing is to limit access to the devices. My parents were pretty good about balancing things and making sure that I went outside to play with my friends in the neighborhood. I would ride my bike all over, climb trees, play hide and seek, build forts. But I would also geek out. A year or two after we got internet access around 1997, when I was 12, I started learning how to code websites and make things in Photoshop. My dad was taking a course at the local community college on HTML and I started reading his books. I also started learning how to program. Today I do design for print, apps and the web (including coding), along with photography for my job. So I would say technology had a big impact on my life and who knows where I would be today without it. Even with all of this tech in my life I'm still a fairly well-adjusted person. Though I see some millennials that are a few years younger than me that just freak out all the time about the dumbest crap. All they do is whine constantly about everything and many of them lack any real skillsbe it job skills or people skills. It might be technology related, as in people letting technology babysit their kids which is totally wrong. As with most things in life, a proper balance is required. My wife is pregnant with our first child and when she's a toddler I'm going to get a Mini (or give her an old Mini) and one of those protective, child-proof cases and put restrictions on it and some educational apps to play with. But it will only be a small part of her childhood experience. Honestly, when I think back about what I loved doing most in childhood it was drawing on the back of waste copy paper my dad would bring home from work, running around with my friends until dark, and creating crazy things with my legos. It does kind of scare me thinking about the crazy connected world that my child is being born into. She will never know a time without all of this data flying through the air. Will she ever take time to be at peace with herself, to travel out into nature and relax, or will she feel pressure to always be connected and working when she is older?
I think the key thing is to limit access to the devices. My parents were pretty good about balancing things and making sure that I went outside to play with my friends in the neighborhood. I would ride my bike all over, climb trees, play hide and seek, build forts. But I would also geek out. A year or two after we got internet access around 1997, when I was 12, I started learning how to code websites and make things in Photoshop. My dad was taking a course at the local community college on HTML and I started reading his books. I also started learning how to program. Today I do design for print, apps and the web (including coding), along with photography for my job. So I would say technology had a big impact on my life and who knows where I would be today without it. Even with all of this tech in my life I'm still a fairly well-adjusted person. Though I see some millennials that are a few years younger than me that just freak out all the time about the dumbest crap. All they do is whine constantly about everything and many of them lack any real skillsbe it job skills or people skills. It might be technology related, as in people letting technology babysit their kids which is totally wrong. As with most things in life, a proper balance is required. My wife is pregnant with our first child and when she's a toddler I'm going to get a Mini (or give her an old Mini) and one of those protective, child-proof cases and put restrictions on it and some educational apps to play with. But it will only be a small part of her childhood experience. Honestly, when I think back about what I loved doing most in childhood it was drawing on the back of waste copy paper my dad would bring home from work, running around with my friends until dark, and creating crazy things with my legos. It does kind of scare me thinking about the crazy connected world that my child is being born into. She will never know a time without all of this data flying through the air. Will she ever take time to be at peace with herself, to travel out into nature and relax, or will she feel pressure to always be connected and working when she is older?
