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Once a Computer Nerd, Always a Computer Nerd

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Once a Computer Nerd, Always a Computer Nerd

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Andy's brother was into technology from an early age. Andy remembers playing around him while he figured out electronics and took things apart. In the late 1970s, he already had his own computer, a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I.

His brother ended up becoming a big time engineer and creating programs which he ended up selling in the 90s.

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My boss graduated in 1987, so he (Andy), says there wasn't much. He took a computer science class that year and they had just obtained the Apple II C computers. They learned how to program using BASIC computer language.

He says it was a good lesson in how to use simple logic to solve problems. It also showed that computers are "dumb" and humans have to write the instructions for a computer to function.

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My husband, Ben, was born in 1989, so his experience was the beginning of the internet. Although he didn't have access to dial up for a long time, he was exposed to it in school where he played The Oregon Trail II in 1995.

His mom and dad were still married in Missouri, and they lived in an apartment on top of the Chinese restaurant they owned. The technology there was basic, and air conditioning was not included in it. There were factory sized fans used to cool down the restaurant and their upstairs apartment.

Ben was able to watch TV at that time, but it was primarily the parent's TV. Bunny ears were vital to the success of nighttime TV watching and VCRs were a family night essential. Home videos were recorded using a videotape and cassettes, and the pictures of him back then are grainy.

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Ben received his first pager in 2000, when everybody else already had one. It was his first experience with a mobile device, as he was lower class. Growing up in Tucson, he used to walk or ride his bike to school which "felt" like a ten mile ride and when he would get to school, he had to put the pager in his backpack.

The older he got, he would sometimes ditch school and would page his friends or his brother to hang out with him in as minimal letters as possible.

In school, overhead projectors were used almost exclusively with the chalkboard. Even though projectors had been around for a couple decades, it was still a fascinating experiences being able to see what the teacher was doing.

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Ben purchased his first cell phone at the age of 18. He started a landscaping company in the small town where he finished his adolescence and his clientele would request a simpler way to get ahold of him. He started out with a flip phone from Alltel and was fascinated with T9 word. It was also how he began to hate technology, because he gave out his phone number to so many people and didn't actually expect them to reach out to him!

Three years later, him and his (first) wife went on their honeymoon and didn't have cell phones at the time for whatever reason he doesn't remember, and they went to a mall kiosk. The workers at the booth had no problem signing them up for cell phones right then and there.

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This is not a picture of my stepson, by the way.

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My stepson, Jayson, was born in 2012. His first remembered experience of a cell phone was when he was 3. His G-Ma would hand him her phone so he could watch videos on Youtube unsupervised. This was how he came to learn of certain video games that he asked if she could download.

His first video game experience was Temple Run, where you dodge obstacles while running from an opponent. When he was 5, I bought an old PS2, and he learned to play ATV games and his dad decided it was a good idea to teach him how to play Call of Duty.

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Also not a picture of my stepson, Jayson

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When the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) hit in February of 2020, Jayson was in the 2nd grade at a school in Tucson Unified School District. Being 7 years old at the time, technology wasn't big in the classroom yet besides an interactive whiteboard (Smartboard).

When Covid-19 kicked the students out of the classroom and into remote learning, it was the first time he had ever had a computer put in front of him and was expected to know how to use it. His dad and I did not own a laptop at the time, so he was given a loaner from the school. He quickly learned Zoom, different homework websites, and how to navigate the apps provided on the Chromebooks. This was a culture shock to him, and watching him learn to teach himself technology for that half a year of remote learning was both difficult and wondrous.

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Puberty is Scary in a World of Technology

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Puberty is Scary in a World of Technology

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Now that Jayson is 12 and in middle school, technology is both prevalent and inevitable. His junior high school uses Chromebooks for instruction in the classroom, as well as learning how to code, and other STEAM programs that utilize and rely on technology. Jayson himself owns a smartphone, because his parents are divorced and he lives in Pinetop, so it is necessary to have a way of contact. He uses his phone religiously to call his friends (yes, the 12 year old makes actual phone calls) and he owns a tablet to play games with those friends at the same time.

If that's not enough, Jayson owns his own PlayStation 4 that was bought by his mom for Christmas. This is wonderful, because we can utilize video chat on the phone and play the PlayStation 4 together, even though we are so far apart.

With great technology comes great responsibility. As he becomes a teenager, it is important that I am able to monitor his location and set timers on his phone for how long he is able to continuously be on it.