Where We Live: All it takes is a little patience

Just a little patience.

This is a line from the popular Guns n’ Roses song released in 1989.

This refrain comes to mind every time technology decides to throw me a curve. A fine example of this was this morning when I got my printer to work from my iPhone … but now it will not print from my laptop.

I have a good excuse for not being all tech savvy; it’s because I am a part of the baby boomer generation. We are digital immigrants and we are the generation with the least patience when it comes to learning how to work our high-tech gadgets and computers.

My husband and I were born right in the middle of the boom. We lived through different time periods in America. We have seen different political eras, different music eras (classic rock will never die), and many years of current events around the world. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the Waco Texas standoff and the first moon landing were just a few historical events now forever etched in our minds.

The technology generation was just starting to blast off.

Growing up, television and radio were our entertainment. Sets were black and white, 12 inches wide, had just three stations/channels, operated with a tube and turned off at midnight when the civil defense picture came on the screen. And imagine no remote control to turn stations!

Today’s television can be up to 75 inches, have an LED or plasma screen, boast more than 700 stations and can turn on or off plus adjust the volume by the sound of your voice.

My first radio was a small transistor that ran off batteries. I slept with it under my pillow many nights listing to rock ’n’ roll out of KOMA in Oklahoma City. I can still hear the call phrase and it puts me right back to that little farm house in South Dakota. Now we have satellite radio and you can listen to talk radio, oldies, classic rock or jazz or anything you would like.

If someone were to ask me, “What has technology greatly changed in your lifetime?” it would be the telephone.

My first phone was a black box that hung on our kitchen wall. It was a party line, meaning at least seven different families shared the same line. Each household had one phone and a different ring to signal the call was for them. Our ring was two shorts and a long ring.

Today I am still amazed that I can call on a small, flat, thin object called a cellphone. Not only can I make and receive calls but I can talk to someone on FaceTime and actually see them as we talk. And I can text anywhere, anytime.

Our kids were not raised on technology like kids are today. When our kids were small they played outside with friends, played ball or rode bikes. Growing up in the boomer generation we never had such things, so I guess we felt they didn’t need them either. They never had video games or hand-held electronics that other kids had until they were much older. Their technology was our family TV set, and later it was an Atari system with a few different games. But they took to learning these electronics like a fish takes to water.

Then in 1995 the first personal computer with internet arrived in the Tobia household. It was a big Packard Bell and purchased by our oldest son who ironically continued to make a career out of working with computers. Our house has never been without one since. Of course we have added on Kindles, iPhones and laptops.

It amazes me to see young children today playing on their parents’ smartphones and tablets.

Today’s teenagers use technology to stay in touch with their friends at all times through their own personal computers, mobile phones and gaming consoles in their own rooms. I read recently that teenagers’ bedrooms could be called a “connected cocoon.”

I quizzed our grown children as to what they felt was their biggest change they have witnessed so far. The cloud, being able to save and share information between your phone; Google search, which is the ability to read or learn anything you want online; and being able to live chat on video were their answers. I can only imagine what technological advancement our grandchildren will see in their future.

As for now, I will continue with all the patience this baby boomer can muster up to try to just keep two steps behind in today’s world of electronics.