Day 41 - New Tools, New Tricks



January 19, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)


Every day I use technology to learn, create and communicate. Some people might add play games too. What wonderful tools we now have at our disposal. They allow us to research without leaving our homes, create photos without the smell of fixer on our hands and communicate with people all around the world with only a few taps of our fingertips.

When I was a student at Brehms Lane Elementary School in Baltimore, we used fountain pens in the beginning because ballpoint pens were not in everyday use then. We used chalkboards and a coveted helper chore was to be chosen to clap the erasers for our teacher. In those days, we had to painstakingly add huge columns of numbers with pencil and paper to find the total; today, within a few seconds we can have our answer. When I was in first grade, hand-held calculators (a sort of mini-computer) were not in use yet. It is interesting to note that perhaps hand-held calculators are no longer in broad use today because we can use our smart phones to do math problems.

I received an e-mail today from my 93-year-old friend, Doris, who is in my poetry group.  Although she’s not as quick as most young people are when she uses her computer, at least she has not refused to learn how to use new tools. She has added computers to her communication tools and the Internet to her information tools. It is heartening to see that at least one nonagenarian has allowed herself to grow and learn new things. I hope I am as open to change as Doris is when I am in my 90’s.

My gift today was an e-mail from a nonagenarian.
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You can read my other posts on this project here:

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