stupid technology

we think technology has made our lives easier...
that we're smarter now that we have all this technology....

like when the boy child ask some question that I never even thought about
and I can whip out my smart phone,
go all wikipedia on that question
and answer the child like I knew the answer all along!
...we think we're smarter...

so, maybe technology has made US smarter...
I think it's also made us stupider...
yep...

example numero 1
neither one of my kids could call their grandparents if you just handed them any-ol phone...
to call grandma they need to be able to find grandma's number on the menu or caller-id...
(not that I knew my grandma's number, but I only talked to her on birthday's and Christmas)
...but my kids talk to their grandma's on a very regular basis...
yet they have never 'dialed' either of their numbers!

take 2
last year our daughter tried to call us from school...
when she was in 5th grade....
she told us our number didn't work...
I asked her what number she called...
that's when I had the pleasure of informing her that calling our address will not make our phone ring...
(blog note...we have now made sure that both our kids know both of our cell numbers! and I quizz them on a regular basis)...
but she had never HAD to 'dial' home before
(if she was calling home, she just looked for 'home' in our cell phone and selected it...then the phone called home magically!)
she's never had to give her number to someone...
I usually have always just texted our number to her friends mother...
and we all just have all of our numbers saved into our phones...
and no-one-ever actually had to 'dial' anyone's number...

third times a charm
I just finished filling out the pile-o-forms for the first week of school...
where you have to put down the emergency contact numbers...
I put down names of friends that I talk to the phone on a regular basis...sometimes multiple times a day...
yet I have no idea what their actual numbers are...
these are the people that I love and trust enough to take care of my child in an emergency if the school can't get ahold of me...
yet I can't tell you their phone number!!!...
but if you give me your number I can msg you their entire vCard (whatever that is) with all of their personal info!!!...
or better yet...
we can just 'bump' our phones together and transfer all that info...
so we never have to even punch in any numbers at all!!!

the big finale
it's a good ol' fashion radio contest...
a chance to win a family vacation, including airplanes and hotels...the kids got giddy with the excitement of this trip we would never win...
kids..."can we mom, can we?  can we call and win the trip?"
me..."sure, just call the number."
girl child...grabs my phone..."how do you dial letters?"
(I explained to her to look for the letters and dial that number)
children giddy with excitement...girl child nervous that she might be on the radio...
silence...
girl child holding phone and smiling
me..."what's going on?"
girl child..."oh, it's just beeping."
me..."it's busy." (with the confidence that she knows what this means...)
girl child...keeps phone up to her ear and continues to listen to the beeping...
me...repeat...'it's busy!"  (maybe she didn't hear me the first time...)
girl child...nodding her head at me and smiling...listening to the beeping...
me..."that mean's you need to hang up and call again."
girl child...blank stare...
this is the point that I realize that neither of my children have ever heard a busy signal or knows what it means...
they know all about call waiting & voice mail...this is what 'normal' phones do when you call and the line is already being used...it doesn't just beep...

I can now confidently tell you that if something horrible 911-calling-appropriate happened and all my children had was a rotary phone...we would probably all die!  because they would have no earthly idea how to use this technology!

they would probably 'dial' 911 by pushing the holes...because my children have never actually 'dialed' a number...they have only ever 'pushed' a number!
so technology could actually kill my family...but only in the event that we were in a home with only rotary phones and a 911-calling-appropriate emergency occurred!
so...we're probably safe!