Ain’t technology grand! We have so many new tools at our disposal that it’s a wonder that we were able to survive in years past without all the electronics and computers and all the various software programs that save us from ourselves.
There was a time that I knew how to type – on a manual typewriter nonetheless – and was a reasonably competent speller and I didn’t need a bunch of help with my grammar.
Today, I take photographs with an instrument that is far more advanced than any camera I have ever used and is far more advanced than even the computers I used in years past.
I used to be a fairly decent photographer with my Minolta X-700 and an array of lenses and I could develop and print my work in the darkroom.
Today, I use a recently purchased Canon EOS 7D that can auto-adjust, auto-focus, auto-expose, film video with audio and do flips and tricks that took me years to learn with my previous cameras. I can print professional quality photos with my Photoshop software and my eight color Canon Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II printer right here in my little office. I have a “smart” light meter, a “smart” strobe lighting system and a “smart” remote. I can even send photos from my “smart” camera to my “smart” phone.
All of my toys are smarter than me.
So, exactly when did I forget how to spell?
I am so old that I actually have a real dictionary lying around here somewhere – probably packed away in one of the boxes of old stuff that I don’t need but won’t throw away.
These days, I just type away, waiting for the red underline to appear and tell me that I misspelled a word. Then, right click and the popup gives me the correct spelling, provided that I didn’t screw up so badly that even the computer has no idea what I meant.
Ain’t technology grand?
Or is it?
William Stephenson Clark
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 