Sunday, February 12, 2012

Technology: Then and Now

In this modern age where kids start using computers at such a young age, it seems that my childhood was like a "caveman period" for the new generation of kids. The other day in Facebook someone posted somebody else's picture that made me laugh so much.

It was a picture of a cassette and a pencil next to it. Below it is written: Kids These Days Wouldn't Know The Link Between These Two Objects.

It took me a split second to realize what it meant, then I started laughing. I remember the first time I had ever bought my own cassette. It was a NKOTB (New Kids on The Block) cassette which my cousin and I played over and over again on the tape recorder. One time it was jammed and the roll of tape got entangled inside the tape recorder (see the pic below). I had to stop it and take it out manually and then roll it back neatly using the help of the pencil. However, the second time it happened, I had to actually open the case of the cassette and roll it into place by hand VERY VERY slowlyyyyy so that it wouldn't slip 'coz then I'd have to do it all over again...


Today I've also been talking to another hometown girl who's just married a Finnish guy and has just moved to Finland two months ago. They also met online, but I realized how different it was back then when I started getting to know Arttu and the time she spent online with him.

She told me that they spent a lot of time sending messages via Facebook because it was cheaper than sending SMSes. When I first got to know Arttu better in 2000, mobile phone providers had just started their SMS services. Back then I still had my 56 Kbps modem to connect to the internet (yeah, so very slow!), so for me it was much cheaper to send SMSes compared to being online all the time. These days in Indonesia there are so many internet providers with faster connections and cheaper prices, so it's natural that it's getting cheaper to connect with people via Facebook or Blackberries compared to sending SMSes.

Talking to the younger generation makes me feel like I came from a distant age and time ha ha ha ha...It doesn't necessarily mean I feel old, though, but it's such a huge contrast that happened in just a few years (I was still using the 56Kbps when I left Indo in 2007 and nowadays the internet connection can be as fast as 1Mbps or even faster than that - depending on what kind of services you subscribe to).

When I look back to my childhood, I remember so many wonderful traditional children's games that we had with my friends and neighbours. Kids these days don't know those wonderful games anymore 'coz they grow up with Wii and stuff like that. These are some of the wonderful games that we played in the olden days:

Congklak

Bola Bekel (explanation can be found in the middle of the page)
Hopscotch


There are also some running/jumping games, but I don't really remember the rules anymore nor could I find any info in English. All I knew was that we had so much fun!!! :-D


6 comments:

  1. I can totally relate! I met my Finnish hubby-to-be way back in 1996. In 1997 we lived in different countries, and although as university students we both had email addresses, the whole concept of email was brand new, neither of us owned our own computer, and at university I remember standing in line for up to an hour to secure 15 minutes of precious email time on one of the "computer lab" machines!

    Thank goodness times have changed :)

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  2. It really is amazing how much more advanced things become over the years. I'm always thankful for new ways to communicate. I'm not sure how Rami and I would have survived without Skype, for instance! Now I use it to talk to my friends and family all the time, too. :)

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  3. It is true that technology is getting smart and smart. I can't imagine live without internet. Since I don't have any smart phone sooo computer and internet is important to our live too :D

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  4. @Katriina: THANKS for leaving a comment. :-D Yeah, back then in Indo when I first started writing emails to hubby, email was also a brand new concept he he...

    @Elena: Indeed...Skype is really handy! :-D LOVE it too!

    @Jul: Yep, it's easier to communicate with people using the internet. :-D

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  5. Hahaha... I love the cassette and pencil/pen part hahahaa... I used to do that as well and used a small kitchen knife to unscrew the case to fix it. Sometimes if the sound wasn't clear, my dad or bro taught us to fold a small piece of paper and insert it in the middle hehehee... Missing those childhood days, yeah, running, jumping even tree climbing. I guess we're luckier to have those freedom, pity my nephews... Btw, I'm a HUGE fan of NKOTB esp. Jordan Knight. ;)

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  6. @CMG: Yeah, we're lucky to be able to still play around many games like that during our childhood, eh?

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