The Internet & Me (one of many moments proving that I am a technological dunce)

Earlier today I was reading an article on the internet, and saw in a list of sidebar articles the title "What was Your First Internet Experience?". When I clicked on it, I saw that it linked to a request for people to call in and leave a one minute message describing their first interaction with the internet.

I had to laugh. And then I called and told my experience, because it's such a perfect example of how I am really an idiot about all new technology.

My list of incidents illustrating this point starts around 1990, when my brother came to visit. A few minutes after he left I got a phone call, and it was him. He explained that he was calling from his new car phone. The call was hard to hear because of the static and after I was done with the phone call I told Russ what a dumb idea it was to have a phone in your car. Later when my mom told me about a friend who was investing in cell phone technology. I told her that I thought that sounded like a terrible investment. Of course we all know how ridiculous these opinions are in retrospect, especially in light of the fact that for years now I've been joined at the hip with my cell phone!

One day in 1990 or 1991 Russ was on our computer. This was in our pre-Windows days, when we used dos. All that showed on the computer were lines of text, and you had to remember all sorts of commands to be able to navigate around the computer. I was sewing, and Russ started talking to me about the computer. He told me about something new, called the internet. He explained that different people or companies would set up something called "pages" and that you could go to these different pages to see different things. I still remember my response--I told him I thought that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard of.

Brilliant.

The list of additional technologies that I've scoffed at (or been sure we would never need) is long. It includes:

• a printer
• a color monitor
• Windows
• a color printer
• high speed internet access
• voice-over IP
• digital cameras
• texting

Russ's boss gave him a digital camera right before the triplets were born. I was beyond not interested. I'd just gotten a really nice SLR for Christmas the year before, and I could not give it up to start using a digital camera. Then we brought the triplets home from the hospital and I took 3 rolls of pictures of them, and and their eyes were closed in every picture. That was the moment that I realized that there was something to the digital camera thing.

That was also the moment when I told Russ that he got to make all decisions involving technology for the rest of our lives. Because it was quite clear to me in that moment that I seriously lack vision...