My 94 year-old father had a heart attack over the weekend (8/4)and is still in the hospital. He is recovering and he should go home in a few days. This is hard because we live in Massachusetts and he lives in New Mexico, so there are a lot of phone calls.
Before my parents moved into an assisted living complex I communicated with my dad through email. He has had a computer for about 5 years and it became another source of connection between us. Not only the electronic connection, but the connection of a shared experience with technology. Whenever I would go to NM to see my parents I would spend time with dad at his computer installing some software or trying to fix something he had screwed up. He is a tinker at heart, like me, and can not leave well enough alone. And, of course, mom would complain that he spent too much time on the computer.
We have had conversation about how much the world has changed since 1913. Dad grew up in Pittsburgh, my grandfather was a draftsman and worked for the steel companies. So my father grew up during the growth of the American industrial revolution, the end of WWI to the end of WWII. He saw the explosion of the auto industry (he became an auto mechanic), the interstate highway system, the airlines, the electric grid, communication systems, TV, and computers. I remember the first TV my parents bought and the first time I saw a transistor radio. My father grew up at a time when most people in the US did not have a telephone now we all carry one in our pocket. Before WW II most people did not travel far from home, now the skies are crowded. It took days to send a letter to a friend, now email is almost instantaneous.
I don’t think we realize how much people of my parents generation (born 1910-1930) have had to adapt to a changing “flatting world”. For most of their childhood and early adulthood their world changed very little and what changes there were came slowly. By the end of WW II that change had began to speed up and has continued to increase.
As an adult and educator living at the beginning of the 21th century I have to make my own adaptations to the rapidly changing world of technology. The “digital natives” in my classroom seem to be adapting to the ever quickening pace of technological innovation. Watching my peers try to adapt to the digital age has given me a new appreciation for my father. He has had fun learning to use a new tool/toy and maybe that is a key to living a long life, have fun and adapt.
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