Of Technology and Big CDs

My son walks to the room and sees me taking a Michael Jackson 'Off the Wall' record out of the cover. He yells, "Oh Cool! A big CD!

I look at the boy and shake my head. I hug him because I remember he's a new millennium kid and he has absolutely no idea what a record is. He would probably use the thing for a Frisbee.

"No, Kyle, it's not a big CD. But it's no use trying to explain how you put that big vinyl into the CD player. I don't even bring up turntables. Let the boy figure out how to get music out of a black disk.

OMG! What if I also have to explain a cassette to him? Lord help me. I'll have to show him how to record music off the radio while trying to edit out the chatterbox DJ. And I have to try to explain what a mix tape is.

What else will I have to explain? A phone booth'anyone remember those? The boy will never use one of those. Will I have to explain to him what a phone dial is?

How about Atari? Sega Genesis. Pinball.

No way am I going to explain these primitive things to him. A.M. radio. Black-and-white television.

I might as well tell him look it up in a dictionary. I mean a real dictionary'with pages, and no search function.

Nope'he's on his own. He will have to learn about these ancient technologies of the past century on his own. Maybe they will offer it in history class. Humanities 101 ' Developing Technologies of the late Twentieth Century.

And I have no sympathy for him. I have to learn his generation's technology on my own'the Internet, Facebook, texting, blogging, etc. Unfortunately, I'm still struggling with Twitter. I don't get it. I'm just not sure if has purpose or value to me.

But I will learn. I will not be left behind by this madness of rapidly developing and changing technology. I will not be stuck in the last decade. I will learn to tweet.

And I expect my son will learn about my outdated technology as well. He's a curious kid.' And I suppose we'll learn the same way.

We will Google it.

In the meantime I'm going to listen to Michael Jackson on iTunes while I try to send out a tweet. You can follow me @theosemper to see my progress.

Photo Credit To The Instructables

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Theo Semper is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Church Affairs. You can purchase a copy of his book from his website, www.theosemper.com or by clicking on the Global Market Place here on MNI Alive.com