Technology and Me

Growing up, technology wasn't very present in my home, until very suddenly, when it was everywhere.
My family got its first computer, an IBM clone that ran MS-DOS, in 1989. It came with a dot-matrix pritner and print shop deluxe, plus the Oregon trail. A year later we got Nintendo, and a year after that, our first camcorder.

Technology really burst onto the scene when we got what I thought of at the time as our first real computer, a Compaq Presario running Windows 3.1, which included Mircrosoft Encarta '94 and an AOL"startup kit"

AOL was the real big changer for us, since it put everyone in touch with loads of information and oopportunities to meet people. However, it didn't come with ready access to the internet. Only when AOl was upgraded and we cleared off enough ram on our computer were we exposed to the internet.

E-mail was used regularly by everyone by 1996. A big deal for me was being able to keep in touch with a tour guide we had on a summer vacation at very little cost. At the time, no one really reliedon the internet for reseatch, paying bills,or entertainment. In school, teachers encoruaged me to use the library for working on projects.

By the middlepart of high school, 1999/2000, the internet was used for everything. By the time I was in college, it was used for erverything.