‘For better or worse? The many ways technology has overhauled our lives’

I do not know if I have shared this before. I went to a local coffee shop in my neighbourhood, and it was full of good folk, all sipping their coffees or having breakfast. Every table was filled, but there was no buzz of conversation, not even between young lovers. Everyone there was sitting in silence, staring at their digital phones or tapping on a laptop. It was more like coffee at an undertaker, than really being part of a social world.

What did we do before DT: before digital technology? Well, here are some blasts from the past.

As young Baby Boomers, we had breakfast reading cereal boxes. We did not have laptops or digital phones. When young, we quickly became erudite in the noble, but juvenile, attributes of Rice Bubbles. By reading the cereal box. Yes, that rated as summer lit.

As colder weather ensued, we soon mastered all the positive aspects of Weet-Bix. When it was porridge time, we substituted our reading with perusing the Vegemite and peanut butter jars. All I can say is that rereading makes for strong readers.

Then, before DT, at dinner times, we had to sit up straight, show good manners, engage in sensible chats only, and ask to be excused from the dinner table. That was only after we had to consume all the plate full of home-cooked foods. My mother was always big on saying we had to be grateful for food, as there were millions of children starving in Africa. My little brain wanted to tell her to send Brussel sprouts to such unfortunate waifs, they could have them. But I didn’t. Good manners don’t cost.

When the first black and white television made an appearance in our lounge room, it was not allowed to be turned on in the daytime. But my older sister was the nominated bipedal remote control. She was the only one ‘allowed’ to walk across the room, to turn the switch on or change the few channels.

We were introduced to the pre-DT world of Zig and Zag. No trouble! Then we were life-coached by two dogs, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. Neither spoke a word of English in that fuzzy world of black, white and grey.

At a certain stage of the evening, before DT, the channel being viewed would play the current national anthem, ‘God Save the Queen’. A test pattern appeared, transmission was finished for the evening. Middle Australia said goodnight and went off to bed. (If we were ‘allowed’ to be awake that late.)

We grew up to teach ourselves to type on a manual typewriter. This gave us our very handy keyboard skills.

Before DT, we thought Amazon was a river, we read that in books or atlases. Yes, we did research in books, with a card index, instead of Google. It is a wonder we learned anything.

I must say, now we have DT, I love Amazon and other online shopping venues. It is like a cargo cult (I read about that in a book too). What surprises are going to turn up today? All a mystery.

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