Assignment Two Kaylyn Torkelson

          Growing up 20 years ago would be growing up in a completely different world. Everything from friends, entertainment, and school would be irrevocably dissimilar. Schoolwork would be completed without the aid of a computer to type your words, research a topic, or ask for help. There wouldn’t be blogs to post in or video websites through which to view information. These days, learning doesn’t stop when you leave the classroom. Learning continues to follow you throughout the day, even into your homes. I believe that benefits us greatly- I couldn’t imagine a life without computers and the Internet for education purposes. Finding ways to hang out with friends and ways to entertain myself would be strange and unusual had I lived twenty years ago. I wouldn’t depend on messaging services to communicate with my friends. I’d have to depend on them to be on time, to know where we’re meeting, to know how to get there. I’d leave my house more often if I knew I couldn’t reach my friends by sending a simple text message or contacting them through social networking sites like Facebook. Honestly, the lack of technology would force me to interact more often with people face-to-face, and I’d appreciate that. (Maybe I wouldn’t be so awkward carrying on face-to-face conversations with people I don’t know if I did it with people I did know more often.) My close knit group of friends is so spread out across the city that we’d have to meet up somewhere to see each other, and I’d enjoy that more than messaging every day. Interacting with others would be so much better twenty years ago, and I think that’s why I’d prefer the past to the present. As hypocritical as that may sound while I’m typing this blog post on a computer, listening to music provided by the Internet on an iDevice, and waiting for a friend to text me back on my phone, I could do without the technology. I’m sure I’d miss the technology, having grown accustomed to being plugged in 24/7. But if I’d grown up twenty years ago and never known the technology, I could easily imagine myself hanging out with friends right now or visiting a cool new place. Life would be different, but I don’t think it’d be any worse. Maybe it’d be even better.