I’m not that old. I am only 32 years old. It wasn’t until I received my first iPhone last week that I went over in my mind how much technology has changed since I was a kid. In the 80′s no less!!

Phones: There wasn’t anything near a smart phone back then. Heck I don’t even think there were push button home phones. And it was even later than that when they went cordless. There were car phones, big honking things that would be wired to a giant antenna attached to the car. Now? Cars have a phone built in and you push a  button in the steering wheel.

Games: I don’t know about you but I was a video game lover, especially pinball and pac-man. I liked playing Simon and Rubicks Cube. I went through time with the first Atari, to the first Sega Genesis all the way up. Gone are the days of dropping a weeks allowance worth of quarters into the Pole Position game at the arcade. Now, there are video games built into cell phones. And console systems can help you work out or stream movies for you.

Computers: Nobody had computers in the 80′s. Commodore 64 came out and the most basic home computers had a whopping 60 mb of space! We got our first home computer when I was 17 and I pretty much used it to play cards. They didn’t have AOL and the internet when I was 17. Now? Anywhere you can get a wifi signal you are connected. There are very few people who don’t have access to the internet. Its free at any library. Also gone is the art of using paper and pen to write someone. Now its email and text because its faster.

Cameras: My first camera was a 110 film camera. I was scared to death of 35 mm film but I switched. There are some photographers that will still use film but for the most part its all digital. Most if not all professional (like magazine photographers) have cameras that send the photos instantly to a computer over wifi. Nobody waits to see the images everything is instant.

I remember when Punky Brewster was THE show to watch. She dealt with what seemed to be really big issues. And then Saved by the Bell. I remember back when we had to go outside and play to find entertainment. I remember when phones had cords and dials. I remember when people had big boomboxes on their shoulders instead of iPods. I remember when we were connected in real life instead of meeting people on our computers.

But along with letting go of the old I embrace the new. I can use the internet to look up ANYTHING and do it faster than going to the library. I can quickly email my college instructors with questions. I can take some classes online and not have to miss family time. I can sit here and write on a blog. I can take photographs and manipulate them into masterpieces. I can also take photographs and just share them. Instantly.

I miss the easy going days of when I was younger and life wasn’t so electronic and connected. But in reality I love that I can now have a device in the palm of my hand that takes the entire internet with me and I can make calls and listen to music, and play games. All with just one device. From computers the size of an entire warehouse to something that fits in the palm of your hand, technology sure has come a long way.