May 7th, 2007
Mac vs PC
As I have previously admitted, I am a computer geek “wanna be.”
When I use the computer or do something techie, I am in total flow, time goes so fast and I don’t even notice anything else. I wouldn’t say I am totally self sufficient in this little passion of mine, but I will say I do learn something on a daily basis. It makes me feel cool; this is only to me, for me, but I am the only one I need to impress. I call it my little techno-bubble.
I don’t want it to burst!
In regards to computers and trying something new, it takes me a lot of time, and quite often I will have to call others and ask them questions when I am stuck. If someone is servicing my computer I get so thrilled to be able to ask questions from a real techie!
Things were not always this way. I distinctly remember the fateful day in my final year of college when we were told that we had to use a computer instead of a typewriter to do our senior papers. This was almost twenty years ago; this was a time when there wasn’t a computer in every home! I went back to school in my mid-thirties, and obviously it was not something I used in high school. It was not a part of my repertoire. I remember feeling not very smart and actually frantic when I could not learn how to use the PC at the university computer lab.
Since I had a long commute to the city where I went to school and I had young children at home, I didn’t have much incentive to hang out at the computer lab. Also, it was down right embarrassing because I felt like I was the only one who couldn’t “get it.” Most of the time I didn’t feel different being the oldest in my class, but when it came to computers, I felt as though I was ancient.
So, I did the next best thing.
I bought a computer of my own, so I could practice using it at home, and I made the choice of a Mac because I heard they were easier to use. (Don’t quote me, because I am not sure, but I don’t think that they had Windows back then; I believe Windows was modeled after the way a Mac works, with icons that one clicks on.)
Anyway, that was what I thought was true. The part about the Mac being easier was true!
I was off and running!
My paper was composed on a computer and that opened up a whole new world for me! I found it rather amusing that when I wrote papers in English Composition in prior years, I would write and write and write. Next I would cut it apart and reposition the writing with tape to place it in the best order before making my final copy, which I wrote by hand or had my mother type it for me. This was my prototype to word processing and I didn’t even know it!
I would love to hear from you about your first time using a computer!
Until next week,
Lorraine
