From Typing Service to Smartphone

When I was in college I had a part-time job as a typist at a typing service.   Before the days of personal computers people would bring their resumes and dissertations to professional typists who would prepare the final document for a fee.  We were paid by the hour.  Clients would have to come in for a proofing session with a hardcopy form to log all revisions so that we could make changes and produce the perfect final copy  - without benefit of a backspace-correct key - prior to getting paid. 

The typewriters in the shop were special.  They were electrically powered but used individual metal key bars that hit the page based as the key was pressed.  The owner had an amazing collection of different sets of keys.  We would use a bail wire to change out a single key or entire set, and I learned to type in mathematical symbols, scientific characters and even a foreign language.  I couldn’t believe what all could be done with the equipment we were provided.  That was in 1975.

Last night I attended a Smartphone class.  Sounds pretty hokey to all you 20-somethings out there, attending a class to learn all the features of your smart phone.  But I’ve seen a lot of technological advances in my time on earth, and I don’t want to miss out on any functionality that is available to me at the touch of a fingertip.  We were divided into classes based on the model of our phone.  My husband was in a different class than I was – one for dudes with ‘studly’ phones.  But even the features on my phone blew me away – who knew I would have a powerful computer the size of ¼ a deck of cards that could do internet searches based on my speaking a few words, or use GPS to locate a nearby restaurant or display a constellation or organize 8g of picture and video?  Heck, who knew I would even be able to halfway speak the terminology?  All of us take for granted the amazing world we live in, but I hope I never get too cynical or worldly to simply be amazed at what is accessible to me and others with the means to acquire such devices.

My phone doesn’t have voice to text, and the voice dialer just doesn’t work well with my voice.  But my husband, oh he is a whiz at asking that thing questions, or commanding that it call a certain person, or asking it to search for something.  While I was preparing to go to bed, I marveled as my husband asked his phone to tell him the current temperature and the expected low for the evening so we would know how to prepare the outside of our home.   He asked me if I had a question to ask of it, and the one that came to mind is not something I’d share on this blog.   But it gave us both a good laugh and reminded me that in this world of instant information some things are better left to be discovered at the pace of relationship, and that there is value in anticipation, discovery, and wonder.