Your opinion please! Did you know that Larry King, Judge Judy Sheindlen, and Oprah Winfrey...

[Audio_Al]

have never turned on a computer in their lives?

Get this... Oprah doesn't even have a cellphone.

So said Judge Judy on Larry King Live tonight 11/12/07.

(Transcript Update available at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/lkl.html )

Judy said the internet is a wonderful place, but it is dangerous and scary, too. She prefers the telephone, where relationships can be nurtured and nuances noted among people speaking directly to other people. She said she has observed situations where arguments get very heated when someone hits the SEND button with a difficult message.

What's your opinion? Would you chuck your computer, cellphone, or mp3 player tomorrow if you could? Or are you the sort of person who can't live without them?

I'm an "early adopter" as an electrical engineer now age 73 -- always tinkering with electrical stuff -- using a computer starting in 1981, now into digital photography, spreadsheets for finances, and so forth.

My wife? Age 68, wonderful person, but not that mechanical. She finally sold her last Corona typewriter in 1984, I think, and started using Word Perfect. She can't hook things up or fix them, so I'm usually the repairman.

We didn't get cellphones until 2000, when I had a contract job in Washington state while still maintaining our home in Oregon.

What's your story? And, if you don't mind, does this have anything to do with age? What's YOUR age? I've read that the fastest growing group of people now using computers -- are senior citizens! Judge Judy implied that Larry was older, too -- but Oprah isn't THAT old!

We might use your responses as part of our audio program at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Respectfully,


Audio Al, your Radio Pal (2007)

Volunteer Producer/Co-host at OPB's Accessible Information Network
Read more about our audio service at: http://www.opb.org/accessinfonet

[Blashyrkh]

1. Neither have millions of Africans. Big deal.

[MADem]

11. The hundred dollar crank up laptop might change that... nt

[Audio_Al]

13. Seriously, that was a story out of the MIT Media Labs back in 2005...

http://www.news.com/Low-cost-laptop-moves-closer-to-reality/2100-1044_3-5884683.html

Have they finally moved ahead with the idea?

[MADem]

20. More recent info here--Dunno if it has gotten down to a hundred, though--maybe two

http://internetcommunications.tmcnet.com/topics/broadband-mobile/articles/13675-will-intel-bring-wimax-cheap-pcs-africa.htm

Intel’s (News - Alert) Chairman, Craig Barrett, in Africa to attend the Intel World Ahead Program, has said that wireless broadband, particularly WiMAX, could potentially solve the digital divide in Africa and other places. He was reiterating a prediction made by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that the WiMAX communications system could become the dominant mobile standard in Africa. (WiMAX (News - Alert) already exists in some form in nine African countries).

...Intel is also attempting to promote the use of inexpensive PCs in Africa, via its support of the One Laptop Per Child XO machine and the Asus EEE PC. It has even developed its own ruggedized laptop for developing nations, called the Classmate PC.

It remains to be seen what kind of PC and telecom markets can ultimately be opened up by these efforts.

[evlbstrd]

2. I'm a relatively early computer adopter,

and got my first cell phone this summer. I'm 51.

[Audio_Al]

3. Hello evlbstrd -- Thanks. You might like to read this...

From: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05EEDF1530F936A15750C0A9629C8B63

For Some Internet Users, It's Better Late Than Never

By KATIE HAFNER
Published: March 25, 2004 (relatively older article, but the first one I read!)

WHEN Helen Karjala decided to set up her own computer last year, she was fearless. She patiently plodded her way through the process of setting up the machine and connecting to the Internet, an ordeal that can bring unwholesome utterances to the lips of people half her age.

''I started investigating the wires and the prongs and I thought, 'I can do this,''' recalled Mrs. Karjala, who is 88. ''Of course, I needed a magnifying glass.''

Mrs. Karjala, who lives in Rossmoor, a retirement community in the San Francisco Bay area, now spends at least an hour each day at the computer. She exchanges e-mail messages with two dozen relatives in Finland, keeps her language skills polished by reading a Finnish newspaper online, and collects chicken and eggplant recipes.

Once largely written off as a lost cause, older Americans are now coming into their own as Internet users. They are researching their family histories, sending e-mail, running virtual book clubs, reading about religion and travel, and pursuing other interests lifelong and new.

According to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a research organization in Washington, the ranks of Americans over 65 who use the Internet have jumped by 47 percent since 2000, making them the fastest-growing group to embrace the online world.

(More at link above...)

[Jeanette in FL]

35. I just got my first one this summer too

That is just too funny. I cracked up when I saw who had written that.

I just got mine this summer too, but I am 52! Even owning my own business, I hate the idea of having a cell phone. I cannot understand how people can be on them 24/7. With all the traveling I had to do this year, I had to finally breakdown and get one. I still get hassled for not having it with me, not having it turned on, left it in the truck, battery dead. I am not too good with the little bugger. They are very needy. I am getting into ringtones, but since I never give my number out, I never get to hear it.

How are you doing, Evl? :hi:

[evlbstrd]

36. Mine startles me when it does ring.

And then I fumble around with it, accidentally set it on speaker and hang up.
I still hate the things. Love my computer, though.
Doing pretty good, Jeanette. How are you?

[Frustratedlady]

4. You can have my telephone, just don't mess with my computer.

When the cable is down, it's like someone cut off my arms.

I'm nearly 70 and have used computers since 1968 when they were the size of a refrigerator and you read the holes in the paper tape. Greatest invention ever until the Internet...can't beat it.

If it weren't for politicians messing up the world, the Internet would bring us all together and we'd have world peace. :-)

[Audio_Al]

5. We concur totally, Frustratedlady.

I wasn't even thinking about the punch card, mag tape, and paper tape variety of computers. UNIVAC and IBM and others. Just personal computers. I retrained from electrical engineering and OEM marketing/sales to software engineering using Wang computers in the early 1980s.

Thanks so much for your response.



Al

[emilyg]

6. My daughter got me a pc and cell.

The cell I can live without. My PC is very important to me. (Senior citizen)

[Audio_Al]

27. Hello EmilyG. Nice to know you here. Thanks for the post!

We're seniors together on the DU.

Respectfully,

Audio Al your Radio Pal



Volunteer producer/co-host at Oregon Public Broadcasting's Accessible Information Network
Read about the 24/7 audio service at http://www.opb.org/accessinfonet
Links to listen to the service are posted at that URL.

[timtom]

33. speaking of seniors...

I bonded emotionally to computers when my wife brought home an old Tandy TRS-80 (no floppy drive) from school in 1982.

I understood everything, immediately.

Went through C-64 phase and into PC's (though I would like to have seen the Amiga triumph over PC's).

Had a car phone for my job in 1986. When I left in 1990, I never had another cell phone.

I don't need to be contacted at someone else's whim.

And I turned 65 in October.

[Lil Missy]

7. My mother just got her first PC a couple moths ago at age 75.

And I basically had to teach her to double click at first.

She's learning, slowly but surely. She LOVES email and being able to surf the net. I set her up with Google in her favorites and she is fascinated at all the information right at her fingertips.

It has opened an entirely new world for her. And she's a total Internet addict now, LOL. She now complains that so much time goes by with her Internet surfing that she doesn't get her usual chores done anymore.

[Der Blaue Engel]

10. "so much time goes by with her Internet surfing that she doesn't get her usual chores done anymore"

I think we've all had that problem. :blush:

[Audio_Al]

12. Hmmm. I think all the laundry is done and the dishes are in the dishwasher.

The "little woman" is sitting at my side, fooling around with some damned thing she likes to do on the Internet.

Yesterday, she did a neat job with the grandkids, but I know she was anxious to get back to her usual routine... discussing stuff with her band of radio, TV, and publicity people and just a flock of acquaintances, family, and friends who email each other with all kinds of things.

Me, I do the important things on line -- banking, travel, photography, stocks and finance. She's probably working with "The Tombstone Generator" or something frivolous.

http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/

She didn't save her version of her tombstone, which was something her Uncle Jerry used to taunt her with:

HERE LIES ELLEN
SHE'S BEEN DEAD A WEEK
AND NOW SHE'S SMELLIN'

At least, we're both a little addicted. Maybe we're co-dependent?

Best kind of a marriage, but we could use a little more exercise, that's for sure.

Thanks for your blushing little redfaced person!

PS. My Planning Calendar (on computer for six months ahead) is longer than my arm (37")--- the end of the year is near.

:hi:

Al

[sandnsea]

17. I did chores the first 25 years

I've decided my husband can do them for the next 25!

[Audio_Al]

21. That's kinda our deal, too. I'm doing most of the food shopping...

and, since neither of us can really cook, I can cut up a store-bought cooked chicken in just a few minutes, with a side of canned peas and corn. It's food just like our (working) mothers used to make.

We do a lot of fresh salads and go to nice restaurants in the Portland Entertainment book.

[Lugnut]

8. I'm 62.

I bought my first computer in 1990. It had no hard drive and required DOS commands to do anything with it and program disks had to be inserted into the A drive to operate it. I designed my own recipe database using PCFile and stored my recipes on the big 5 1/4" floppy disks. My printer was a pin dot. I've been online since 2000 - first on a hand-me-down computer from my daughter before I bought a new one in early 2001. I don't know what I would without my computer.

I have a cell phone but I only use it when I'm out. It's more for checking in at home or for the other half to track me down if I'm late getting home.

[Ytzak]

9. To paraphrase Chuck Heston -

I will keep my computer until they pry the keyboard from my cold dead fingers.

[Audio_Al]

14. "I will keep my computer until they pry the keyboard from my cold dead fingers."

Had to put that in the subject line, Ytzak. Welcome to the DU! I'm Avram Labe.

My grandson pried my wife's Hewlett Packard keyboard -- from a pile of FREE TRASH at a local yard sale in Clackamas, Oregon. It works like a charm!

Thanks for your comments. Are you a youngster -- or a senior citizen? Over 50?

[Ytzak]

38. As a little boy, I saw Ben Hur in its first release (1959) withmy Grandmother, for 15 cents.

So that makes me a Senior, physically. Like all men, mentally I never matured past the age of 16. I've just gotten slower over the years.

[Audio_Al]

41. You said, "Like all men, mentally I never matured past the age of 16."

Mostly what I thought about at that age was girls, girls, girls... not any more. They all look like my granddaughter's Barbie dolls. Except the other night at www.vegasrex.com and once in a while.

OT: Is that you on the Wrest link? You sound like an interesting guy and that looks like a great site.

Let's see -- I remember three movie theaters in Brockton, Massachusetts, where I was born in 1934. They had some vaudeville early on. Don't remember what I paid to get in.

My mother's mother, Yetta, was an older lady with red hair. She was crippled with arthritis, but still kept busy with her sewing. She passed away when I was 10 or 11.

Good memories, and perhaps we'll talk again.

Respectfully,



Audio Al, your Radio Pal
Volunteer audio producer/co-host on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Accessible Information Network
Read about our service at: http://www.opb.org/accessinfonet
Volunteer substitute teacher with English Literacy Council here in our town in Oregon

See my audiobook updates at: www.journals.democraticunderground.com/Audio_Al

[Ytzak]

44. Yes, I usually hang my hat at the Wrest.

We are a small site, good people, good conversation. Hope see you around.

[Audio_Al]

46. Thanks, Ytzak. I'm putting you first on my buddy list.

Slogan: "WREST -- we're better than all the rest."

I admit I thought it was wrestling when I first saw it, but -- no.

[Audio_Al]

49. Brockton, Massachusetts (1921) PHOTO and LINK:

Brockton, Mass. in the 1920s.

http://www.outpostgallery.com

I think that shows the Brockton high school buildings, but not sure.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Funny story

My sis bought the first 286 we ever used... and I was afraid of the damn thing

We were in college and she used it for her thesis... but I barely touched it. Hell, the damn thing is still seating here.

What is more, the monitor still works... I think it will stil powerup... HD.. what HD? It used five and a quarter floppies, that were called floppies for a reason.

Then I got myself a 386... still no HD and started to tinker with things like MEM allocation to make it run faster.

These days I have tinkered wiht WIN, LINUX and MAC machines and depend on them every day. Right now I am posting from my MAC since well, Vista is a small nightmare... (and it is the OS)

My mom, she is seventy five... we needed to move to Hawaii, the joys of uncle sam and didn't want to take my hubby's old P-1 so we told my mom... you know what? Take this home and we can IM each other... that was HER first computer, a hand me down... and for a seventy something, these days seventy eight, she is far more competent than some "'kids" half her age

No, she can't do anything too complex... but she does defrag her replacement machine every week and has the virus checker and all that... and yes, we use it to communicate.

Now my cell... I am lucky I can dial out of it... and darn it, I used radios as a medic... and all a cell phome is well a glorified 800mhz range radio!

Oh and I am in my mid forties

[sandnsea]

16. Been "computering" since 1974

Entered coordinates for logging for the forest service on a big old WANG computer. The fax machine was a cylinder and you could see it spin around with the black ink printing the message. Worked on word processors when they were the size of a free standing oven. Had PC's and a Mac in the 80's. Have almost always had a computer, make my living online now.

Cell phones? I could care less. I refuse to have call waiting, although I do like my caller ID. I also LOVE the GPS system in my car, no more screaming matches with DH!!

I can't understand being completely technologically ignorant.

[Audio_Al]

23. Great info, sandnsea. We don't understand being "technologically ignorant" either.

Our two Verizon cellphones are used mostly to contact family and friends in the U.S. They are quite useful when we travel in the U.S. We've had only rental cars with GPS -- and I agree, there's nothing like a passenger who just KNOWS you missed your turn!

Our Comcast service is a triple threat -- Internet, Digital cable, land-line telephone service bundled together is kind of costly -- then there's the Verizon cellphone service for an extra.

We've always been a media family -- TVs and radios everywhere, but we consider it one of life's pleasures to be "plugged in." I'm a pretty active shopper at Radio Shack, Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, and CompUSA -- my wife goes to thrift stores and church rummage sales and rarely buys anything at regular stores.

We lived in the next town to Concord, Massachusetts for more than three decades. We used to marvel at the writings of the contemplative lives of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau -- but would probably have been bored to death in a little cabin on Walden Pond (except for the five active children who would have slept on the floor next to us and probably peed in the pond, too. We swam there occasionally...)


Replica of Thoreau's home at Walden Pond


View of Walden Pond

[Basileus Basileon]

18. I have never used a computer in my life,

to say nothing of accessing the Internets. I don't trust 'em.

[Audio_Al]

24. Well, thanks for those puffs of smoke... I got your message loud and clear.

:wtf:

[Raejeanowl]

19. Communication Has Suffered

It's too damned easy to zap someone email or a text message rather than take the trouble to speak with them.

It's also too easy to waste hours and hours on the computer recreationally and not go out and have a real life.

And I hate seeing people having "conversations" while they're driving or walking around the mall or sitting in a group of people at a restaurant; it's just plain bizarre.

I'd say our family, headed by two boomers, was early with the computer use and late with the adoption of cellphones. As long as you have them and put them to your convenience, rather than allowing them to "own" you, they're great resources.

[Audio_Al]

30. Cellphones came with the territory when we were 157 miles from our pregnant daughter.

Four days of the week in an apartment in Milton, Washington on a contract software analyst job, then home to Oregon for three days -- Fri., Sat., Sun. We felt the need to be able to call our family outweighed our reluctance.

I agree with you on your first statement. That was the point that Judge Judy made... too easy to send messages you might regret later. No time to understand sound and nuance. It even happens here a lot, I'm told.

Recreational aspects are seductive, to be sure. For example, it's time to go to bed and I'm not going.

Respectfully,

Audio Al

[SoCalDem]

22. Never had a cell phone or even a cassette recorder thingie

the last portable music to this household was 8-track tapes (still have them and the stereo to play them on )


I own ONE CD ( the Beatles Collection my kids bought me about 10 years ago..still unopened)

Have a broken answering machine

Have 3 phones with cords..landlines

[Audio_Al]

25. With 65,882 posts to your credit, SoCalDem, I'd say you're making up for lost time!

Music? Stick with what you've got, and remember... You can always use your kazoo!

http://www.kazoobie.com/photos.htm





www.kazoobie.com

[SoCalDem]

26. I DID teach myself as much as i was able..about computers

I wish I had known more.. I still occasionally "discover" something new.. i think my first computer was a 386 something or other that cost a LOT of money back then :)
But I still have TWO typewriters ... a manual and a pretty nifty electric one :)

[B Calm]

28. I still have no need for a cell phone! Just an added expense..

[zalinda]

29. Learned how to key punch in the 70's

I hated it. Learned how to "program" computers also by moving wires, loved it. But, I never did pursue either thing. In the 80's I got my first Commodore 64, and I've been at it ever since. I really do like tech gadgets. I had to trick my son into getting on the computer band wagon. When he found a game that really clicked for him, he moved into computers from video games, for the most part. Now, he is a self taught programmer, web designer and I think being without a computer would freak him out. Me, I would just go crazy, I think.

But, I have never caught on to the cell phone or pda. I had a cell phone for about a year, and hardly used it. My son got me a pda, which I liked, but I kept forgetting to plug it in to recharge and all my data would disappear. I have got to learn how to use the memory stick, but it's not intuitive, and I HATE reading manuals.



zalinda

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. My profession was revolutionized by the Internet

I got into translation just as the Internet was becoming popular, and expectations for computer competence on the part of translators are growing year by year.

In the old days, I'm told, people received jobs by phone or snail mail, wrote them up on a typewriter, and snail mailed them to the client.

The next stage was delivery by fax.

Now everyone expects e-mail attachments and solicits bids for translation jobs from around the world. Most of my customers are NOT in the U.S.

So no, I would not be able to do my job if I had to give up my computer and broadband connection.

However, I'm not much of a phone talker, so I could easily do without a cell phone. I have an iPod, but I use it only on long plane trips.

[WilliamPitt]

32. My first book getting published forced a cell phone on me for interviews etc.

I still hate the goddam thing.

Computers and the net, however...in my opinion, the internet and the galaxy of information available represents perhaps a small part of what could be the next step in human evolution. I mean by that a mental evolution, an expansion of nuance and understanding forced upon us if/when we choose to face that avalanche of data. Not evolution without, i.e. digits, height, strength, speed, etc. I mean evolution within.

Non-political people I know have become far sharper and fact/data-point oriented when talking about the world at large, threats, bullshit, politics, etc. They got that way because of the information they found online.

More information is never, ever, ever a bad thing. Period.

Also, I have no fucking idea how I managed to survive for 27 years and graduate from schools and stuff without Google. I'm on Google 50+ times a day. Al Gore invented the internet so we could have Google.

I t'ink, anyway. :)

[Audio_Al]

43. When we lived in Massachusetts, up until 1998 -- we used the other search engines.

Digital Equipment Corporation in Maynard had the biggest one.

www.altavista.com

I think Magellan was a search engine, too.

Radio Lady worked part time for the Digital group in Stow, Massachusetts, before they were bought out by Compaq. My last job in Massachusetts was working for a Waltham company -- Kronos, then we exited for Portland, Oregon.

So, did you have a good birthday?

Respectfully,

Al

[krispos42]

34. I would not chuck them

They are not critical to my life, necessarily, but they do not cause me fustration and I enjoy the benefits.

My iPod Nano I fill with commercial-free music, audiobooks, or stand-up comedy to make the long hours at my factory job pass.

My PC gives me streaming Air America Minnesota, the DU, and storage for my many digital photos. And, of course, regular and "non-regular" movies. :evilgrin:

And I don't use my cellphone much, so it's not like I'm getting harassed by people or being one of those obnoxious constantly-yakking-in-public dorks.

Basically, I figure out what they do, use the features I need to make what I normally due easier, and forget the rest.

I'm 31, if that helps any...

[Midlodemocrat]

37. Oprah herself may not have a cellphone, but everyone around her does.

Same result. She actually stated that once on her show. That in effect, her not having a cell phone was no big deal because all her staff had them.

[Audio_Al]

39. Hi Midlodemocrat -- we had the same reaction. A retinue of people allows the monarch to...

carry on in whatever way he/she wants to.

Thanks for your comment.

[Audio_Al]

40. Radio Lady wonders if Queen Elizabeth carries a cellphone in her purse?

Radio Lady (sitting next to me, working on Oregon Public Broadscasting program for Friday, Nov. 16th):

"For that matter, what ELSE does she carry in her purse?"

http://dallasmorningviews.beloblog.com/archives/2007/05/re_why_does_the.html

My apologies for photo of the two thugs with the Queen, her purse, and her Prince --



Respectfully,

Audio Al

[book_worm]

42. I don't have a cell phone either. Big deal.

[RainDog]

45. Early 1990s

Tho I knew some about them back in the days of all those cards, cards, cards, cards. Started out using unix to format stuff b/c I didn't have my own computer. Then got my own computer in 1993 (a mac, and a mac every time since.) Back in the days of pine... never had a class, read a manual, and to this day I don't rtfm like I should. Computers are like cars, to me. I don't want to have to work on the engine, set the plugs, blah blah... I want to be able to get in, turn the key, and go.

Was slow to adopt web-based graphics, etc. because I hate to have to change computers. Had to upgrade to DSL a couple of years ago. I have to work on PCs now, too, and I hate them. I detest the new ms word, etc. too many doo-dads. They should have a "just give me the f-ing basics" - don't hide them and make me add them to my preferred stuff. ugh.

I'm not a great typist because I never wanted to have to be a secretary. Boy do I regret not learning to type faster now...

Over the last few years I finally learned html, xhtml, css, learning php. I was always intimidated b/c I thought html, etc. was so hard and math oriented. (and I am math phobic, or whatever.) That was so much b.s. It's nothing of the sort. Just a matter of learning what commands mean and closing brackets. Use image editing software alot- Fireworks. Am about to have my own domain, again because I need to do this to host some stuff.

Also have a cell phone. Had to get it when my kids got old enough to go places on their own...they have them too for the same reason.

Have a hot pink ipod nano that's almost full of stuff, including Matt Damon reading On the Road. don't have any podcasts or photos on there. Still have a portable/joggers cassette/radio player that I use to listen to the radio sometimes I work when I'm not at a computer. Cassette player no longer works. Radio works fine.

Didn't own a microwave until the mid-1990s and I inherited that one. still have it. only use it to warm up stuff and pop popcorn, tho now I hear that's terrible for you.

I'm not a senior citizen. I am a female and I'm cough, cough, ahem years old. One son is a sophmore in college and the other graduates from h.s. this year... you can do the math.

I'm not an early adopter because, as noted, I hate to have to change computers. The amount of computer garbage isn't as bad as plastic, but surely must be significant in the U.S. at least.

[Audio_Al]

47. Thanks for all these great responses. We'll use them on a future audio program.

We might even be able to do it STREAMING one day. We're working on it now. It would still be delayed from Friday morning recording session to Monday afternoon Internet broadcast. Details later.

For more information on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Accessible Information Network, please go to:
http://www.opb.org/accessinfonet

At the present time, we only have an office telephone answered by a couple of very busy staffers. This is due to upgrading of the service. However, you can listen to the 24/7 AccessInfoNet internet feed by going to:

http://www.opb.org/programs/streams/

Choose SECOND PARAGRAPH media player options for ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION NETWORK.

Let me know if you have any problems.

Thanks again.

Audio Al and Radio Lady

[AX10]

48. Older folks can afford to do so.

If you are under 40, you better know how to use one if you want to get anything done these days.

[mnhtnbb]

50. My 82 year old aunt prefers to get real letters--in the mail--and says

e-mails don't qualify for real letters! Both she and my 88 year old uncle have a computer and separate e-mail addresses.

And they are both dedicated Dems.

[Audio_Al]

51. If you're REALLY old, you can regale people by telling them this:

"In the early 1960s, I worked for the National Broadcasting Company, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY. I was a Commercial Production Assistant for Dick Carson, Johnny Carson's brother, who directed the "Tonight" show at the time. This was one of the highest positions a woman could attain at NBC at the time. I worked around the corner from Barbara Walters, who was involved with the "Today" show.

One of my main responsibilities was getting the teleprompter copy for Johnny done in time for the taping of the show at 6 PM Eastern Time. I would use a typewriter to do the script, then send it out to another company that would type it in big letters, and return it on a paper roll to be attached to the camera, and physically rolled along so Johnny could read it.

Then, the tape of the show would be edited, and "bicycled" (not really, in a four-wheel vehicle, I'm sure) to one of the local airports to be flown to the West Coast and played the next night for Pacific coast viewers.

I tell people all the time -- if you had any kind of written communication going to another person in another building in Manhattan, you could send it by messenger. Or you would have to type it up on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope, and mail it in a slot in the building or take it out to a mailbox on the street. It would get there (usually) the next day. That was blazing fast!

No faxes, no cellphones, no personal computers, no voice mail, no PDAs, no mp3s.

If you are 20 years old today, I wonder what the world will look like almost 40 years from now? I can't even imagine what's coming down the 'Pike."

Written reminiscences by my wife, (Radio Lady Ellen), with Women in Communications (from 2004)

[DemReadingDU]

52. The Internet is like your own personal library

You can research and learn just about anything and everything. It is one of the best inventions ever. Yet, I know some older people who have no interest at all in a computer, not even receiving email from their grandkids. They prefer volunteering, playing cards, socializing with people. And that's good! But some older people when they get ill, could have a whole new world open to them if they had a computer for a hobby to connect with their family, and people all over the world.

Edit to add: About 5 years ago, when my mom was 70, she became ill. We 7 siblings went together and got our mom a computer so she could email all of us about her trips to the doctor. So much easier than calling each of us with the same updates. She even learned to surf the net for recipes. She loved getting pictures of her grandkids in an email. Older people don't know what they are missing, it is one of the best ways to stay in-touch with family pictures. :)

[CT_Progressive]

53. More Republican Propaganda to keep the masses uninformed.

There is a hardcore Republican meme being pressed hard in this country, and that meme is this: "The internet is bad, don't use it."

Because the Internet is the single biggest source of unbiased information in existence, and now that the Republicans control all MSM, the last thing they want is the Netroots to make all that media accumulation useless.

Again, I am telling you all point blank - the "The internet is bad" meme is a Republican ploy to get people to stop using or wanting to gain access to the internet, in an effort to control the masses.

Stop repeating this meme!!!!!!!!