A sign of the times

I think this makes me feel old though....

Sam has been watching a lot of TV because he's sick. I put PBS on for him and he was just amazed to realize that one program follows the other! Amazing! You don't have to start them, you aren't limited to what has been recorded. His view of television has been changed by Tivo.

Very different from my television experience. When we went from three television stations to four, however fuzzy, it was a big deal. We had a black and white TV of course. I first saw cable TV when I was a freshman in college and first saw a VCR after that. My roommates and I rented a machine and a couple of movies from a U-Haul of all places. The machine was the size of a small suitcase and weighed a ton and one of the movies we rented was "Mad Max."

I shouldn't think about these things because it makes me feel very very old. Technology has changed so much over the years. I just got a new cell phone and haven't figured out how to use some of the features (I have yet to figure out how to pull up the keypad when I'm retrieving voicemail so I can delete the message) but it's fun to compare it to the first generation car phones. The phone came with a Bluetooth headset but I just gave that to Ben because I know there is no way I would be able to keep yet another thing charged.

I just wonder how much time is wasted trying to figure out all these new contraptions. A dial phone was easy to use and moving up to a touch tone phone was generally painless. Each incremental change was small...adding an answering machine, a hold button, multiple lines, conferencing, etc. The first microwave we had had one control -- a dial for time. Now most of them have all sorts of buttons that must be hit in a certain order in order to heat up that cold cup of tea. My oven has digital controls and at least they're straightforward but I remember the oven we had growing up -- turn the knob to the appropriate temperature and that's it.

Have you gone to someone's house and tried to figure out how their television system works without a tutorial? Almost no one has just one television with one remote. Most are connected to cable TV systems and if they aren't, are now connected through a converter box. There are DVD players, stereo systems, games and recording systems and usually a different remote for each.

And computers? I do have to admit that what we've got today is easier to use than the old days of programming in basic but the learning curve is steep and I'm beginning to feel as though things are passing me by.

I used to embrace changes in technology but there are places where it is more of a hindrance than a help. Why is there a learning curve to making a phone call, something I've been doing all my life?

It's official, I'm an old fart. But I still love Tivo.