For some reason, listening to the radio (well, listening to pandora - 21st century style, I guess) grounds my daily activities in reality. To back up a little, I recently began a "running music" channel in the hope of finding music I can use on my mp3 player while exercising. Naturally, running music tends to be american rap and pop from the 90s and early 2000s, when music was actually decent. This channel ended up being my toy to reminisce with old school songs. 3 Doors Down's "Kryponite" was a pleasant reminder of the good ol' high school days.
Highschool - when we still went outside to play basketball with our friends down the street, when we rode our bike everywhere, and when we were only still transitioning to digital standards. And, calling friends over the landline ("Hi Ms. A, is Jon there?")! Sleeping over friends' places and getting slaughtered in a NERF gun battle? (maybe this is more elem/middle school)... When I'm reminded of those times, I feel so grounded in reality; not watching football, but going outside to play; not studying my notes off the computer screen, but printing them out. Listening to pandora, I remembered how important it was to just live - embracing community, books, and the genius of the bike.
Just a reminder to myself cherish the 'here and now.'
when i'm at the gym the music they play are usually a bit older from early 2000s. i guess that's when the high energetic beats were in across more artists. right now the only one i can think of is flo rida's you spin my head right round song...
ReplyDeletethey say our generation went through high school during a weird phase in history when so many things were in transition- like technology as you mentioned. computer typing classes were mandatory during my years in high school and i remember that it was a tough class for me because i couldn't type without staring at the keys and going 10 wpm. i don't think those classes are necessary anymore for most kids today...
i also remember going into blockbuster and randomly choosing a movie and bringing it to the cashier, who asked me if I had a DVD player at home because the one I brought to him was a DVD, not a video casette. I had no idea what the f he was talking about, I just wanted to watch a movie dammit.
and then my friend introduced me to AIM which practically sucked up the phone hours allowed in my home because whenever I was on the internet, no one could call our home! and those big fat nokias still haven't come out for the common people at the time. i don't know how people dated back then. imagine being in college during that period!! we rely so much on being connected to each other now through every means possible! even knowing the smallest thing that our friends do give us some pleasure (the genius that is twitter).
that's exactly right! I remember having to take a typing class during highschool too. Our "teacher" made it fun by allowing us to play WPM games. The faster and more accurately we typed, the faster our car would go on the screen. It was a great incentive.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, that's funny that you bring up blockbuster. I remember when blockbuster was the place to be - I even worked at Hollywood Video as a highschool student. But I was speaking with my older brother recently and I mentioned that all the blockbusters in the area are going out of business because they can't keep pace with Netflix. Then, just recently I spotted a blockbuster commercial advertising their own netflix style video ordering (I think you can download it now?). No one even know what VHSs are anymore!
AIM changed it all. I remember spending hours on that thing and waiting to hear the squeaky door sound to see if my friends were on. And they always were.
But as I said, I really enjoy my time before that, when human-to-human connections meant something. You couldn't get away with texting people. Back when you're walkman was so valuable and playing a pick up basketball game with your friends down the street felt so damn good!
So, I've actually tried to stay away from Skype as much as possible. And I'm writing christmas cards this holiday to my area folk :)