Technology Autobiography

My earliest experiences with technology began with a phone. Our home phone was attached to the wall in our kitchen. My little self wished I could be on the phone like my mom and be able to say, "S-h-h-h, I'm on the phone!" I used to spend countless minutes setting up a little play area near where my mom would be on the phone, just so I could listen to her talk to a faceless voice over this thing that you place to your ear. 

One particular week of my life, I remember my mom and dad went away for a few days on vacation. They left me with my grandparents and called me on one of the days. This was the first time I remember putting a phone to my ear and actually talking into it. I also remember the surprise I felt when I heard my mom's voice talking back to me; then my dad's. This sparked my years-long obsession of playing with a phone. My sister and I used to play with the phones in our house and it would upset my parents like nothing else. I can recall unplugging our home phone from the outlet and telling my mom that "now, no one will try calling us." Little did I know then, that people would still be trying to call, even though I couldn't hear the dial tone. My parents knew not to throw out old phones but to keep them for us to play with. 

Aside from our television, one other piece of technology that I can vividly remember was the two-way radio that my parents both used to communicate with each other during the day. See, my dad used to be a lumberjack (something I have always been proud of) and when he would take long trips in his log truck, he would often not be near a phone. This was before we had a cell phone. So my parents would talk back and forth in little increments during the day. I think my mom liked to know when he would be home for dinner. Their "code" as I liked to call it was the comforting and familiar phrase: "base to mobile one." My mom told me it was a way for my dad to know who she was because there were other people using radios too. I used to pretend to say this phrase when my sister and I would play. In my head I envisioned it as "basetamobullone." 

As the years progressed, my sister and I developed some intense jealousy as most of our friends started buying computers. We begged for one for what seemed like an eternity but finally, in 1998, we caved into the pressure and got a computer. I can remember fighting for time on that thing; mostly just to play a game called "mah-jong." This was before we needed it for school purposes so I suppose there really was not a point to it other than to play games and fight each other to be on it. 

A couple years later, America Online began. I recall thinking how amazing it would be to talk to all my closest friends at one time through typing. I went through countless screen names and hours in our dark basement talking to my best friends (and maybe a few crushes). This progressed until I got my first cell phone my senior year of high school. I never misused it. I was careful to only call home and a couple key friends if I needed something. 

The cell phone soon became even cooler with more graphics and something called texting; how amazing! Texting became something I did regularly and then Facebook began. And so began the years of learning how to stay in touch with people I had not seen or heard from in years, as well as becoming an expert time-waster.