Agree with Meg. In addition, technology is trending away from full use of our hands and from handwriting which is an especially essential developmental skill for babies through young children, printing as well as cursive writing. I cringe when I see very tiny children using touchscreen devices. Will we all end up with just using our thumbs on our phones and index finger on our other devices, and just be "hunt and peck" typists? There is nothing nicer than a beautifully handwritten note received in the mail, actually from the post office. It shows that someone truly cared enough to take the time to sit down and articulate their feelings through their hands in response to your kind gesture. In addition, everyone has a unique signature that is them and only them; I hope we do not get too far away from this individual art form who expresses and identifies who we are and keeps our tactile skills entact.
meg - 12 years ago
Not only is technology eroding our imaginations, it is also eroding our thinking skills. I recently shopped at a local store where I had a small purchase, totalling just less than $20. I think it was $18.29 or something like that. The cash register was not working properly - it would not calculate the change. I handed the clerk a $20 bill, and 2 quarters, for a total of $20.50. The clerk was in his late teens or early 20s, was totally stumped and could not figure out the change. I told him what the amount of he should give me back, but he didn't believe me - I can still do math in my head. I even told him how I calculated the amount. He used a calculator, and still could not figure out how much change to give me. He then called over the manager, who was probably 6 months older than the clerk. He couldn't do the math in his head either and needed the calculator to figure out the change.
It took me less than 10 seconds to figure out how much change I should get back, but between the two of them, I waited 15 minutes to complete my transactions. By the way, I'm in my 60s, and learned how to add and subtract long before calculators were common. It's really sad that this country has become "dumbed down" so much over the past couple of generations. Even sadder still is the fact that many teachers of today don't know as much as we learned in grammar school in the 1950s & 1960s.
Agree with Meg. In addition, technology is trending away from full use of our hands and from handwriting which is an especially essential developmental skill for babies through young children, printing as well as cursive writing. I cringe when I see very tiny children using touchscreen devices. Will we all end up with just using our thumbs on our phones and index finger on our other devices, and just be "hunt and peck" typists? There is nothing nicer than a beautifully handwritten note received in the mail, actually from the post office. It shows that someone truly cared enough to take the time to sit down and articulate their feelings through their hands in response to your kind gesture. In addition, everyone has a unique signature that is them and only them; I hope we do not get too far away from this individual art form who expresses and identifies who we are and keeps our tactile skills entact.
Not only is technology eroding our imaginations, it is also eroding our thinking skills. I recently shopped at a local store where I had a small purchase, totalling just less than $20. I think it was $18.29 or something like that. The cash register was not working properly - it would not calculate the change. I handed the clerk a $20 bill, and 2 quarters, for a total of $20.50. The clerk was in his late teens or early 20s, was totally stumped and could not figure out the change. I told him what the amount of he should give me back, but he didn't believe me - I can still do math in my head. I even told him how I calculated the amount. He used a calculator, and still could not figure out how much change to give me. He then called over the manager, who was probably 6 months older than the clerk. He couldn't do the math in his head either and needed the calculator to figure out the change.
It took me less than 10 seconds to figure out how much change I should get back, but between the two of them, I waited 15 minutes to complete my transactions. By the way, I'm in my 60s, and learned how to add and subtract long before calculators were common. It's really sad that this country has become "dumbed down" so much over the past couple of generations. Even sadder still is the fact that many teachers of today don't know as much as we learned in grammar school in the 1950s & 1960s.