I remember the day that the technology guy brought in my first computer and put it on my desk. It was a TRS-80, a fine product from the Tandy Corporation. It was big….had a floppy disk slot….and served as a very fine bookend for my textbooks for the better part of a year. That was 1988.
Prior to that time, I had a dictionary attached to my desk. I had tons of stationary and I had to open a dozen pieces of campus mail each day. My desk also had an electric typewriter that I could play like a fine musical instrument. I had no idea how the computer and the Internet would change my life.
Now I probably spend half of my business day on-line. I have an assistant, not a secretary. She helps organize my somewhat unorganized life by keeping me on task and pushing me to appointments. She doesn’t type anything for me. I write my own letters and messages and virtually everything is digital…including my social life. Yep, I have a growing addiction to Facebook . I know it is getting too much of my time, but I can’t stop. I am addicted…and I have helped to addict many of the people around me. First, my wife was afflicted by my disease…..then I encouraged my sister….and now my co-workers.
It has literally changed my life. I now know when my son is seeing someone. I get a notice that he is “in a relationship,” and I get to see the girl’s best photo. When Mom calls to tell me that my son is now living with a girl….I already know it. In fact, I can tell her how the girlfriend is somewhat concerned about my boy’s horrible singing in the shower. All without talking to him…all because of Facebook….
I get to see pictures of old friends and the other night I engaged in what could best be described as a virtual class reunion. No less than a dozen of my 1975 Bethalto classmates conducted a two hour digital mixer as we identified people in pictures from our senior year. It was very entertaining and says something about my affliction. Even my wife sometimes becomes concerned about my time in the “man cave” where I escape like Don Quixote into this media. Not too different than Cervantes’ character.
When I returned to the Bethalto Homecoming this fall, it was not like I had been away. After all, many of my 323 Facebook friends are from my hometown. They keep up with my posts as I keep up with them. My blog is sometimes a trip down memory lane and my classmates seem to like to escape with me. And when you throw in Skype, which allows me to speak and see my loved ones like George Jetson used to talk to Jane (his wife), you have the ultimate in using technology in a positive way.
I even talk to my college students by being the faceless words behind the Western Texas College Facebook page. I take pictures of their sporting events and encourage them to download them from our site. I push them to remember important dates and encourage them to succeed.
Heck I even have a toy now at my office desk that allows me to send video e-mails to the faculty and staff. I call it “Dreith TV.”
A long way from spilling my coffee into the keyboard of that Trash 80 back in the day in Erickson Hall.
Who knows where this is going?
For your sake…..hope that we don’t find a way to transmit digital smell.
The man cave stinks.
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