What Was that Noise?

For a moment, let me state the obvious. It's the year 2012 and communication methods are extremely different for my generation than my grandparents.

We don't own a house phone, nor do any of my friends. I actually took 3 year old Alice to Best Buy, like it was a museum, so she could see phones with cords. It was a thrilling field trip. She knew what an old fashioned phone looked like, but that's where her knowledge ended. She was not privy to the sound.

You can imagine her surprise when at my grandparents house on Easter, the phone rang. We were sitting in the living room, Alice, my niece, my sister and her girlfriend, my husband and I, playing quietly when it rang out. Damn was it shrill. Alice jumped half a foot in the air, screaming "what's that?" Every adult in the room burst into laughter. The idea that such a simple and once essential piece of technology is now so foreign to this generation was rather amusing to all of us. In her daily life, she never hears a phone ring. Our cell phones are always set to vibrate.

After the laughter died down, we had a conversation on kids and today's technology. Things my grandmother is clueless about but my daughter expects, like touch screen. Alice assume all phones should be touch screen. Hell, so do I. When I have to use Hatta's blackberry, my initial reaction is to pinch to zoom. Alice will likely always have a digital camera. She isn't even aware of film. Instant gratification. My grandmother asked me for a recipe and I went to my bag and found my phone. She asked, "don't you keep anything on paper anymore?" And really, when I sat and thought about it, I keep very little on paper. This way of living is lost on my 80 year of grandmother, but Alice will grow up knowing no other way.

Tell me, do you find yourself thinking of how different the younger generations will be due to the technology they are growing up with? It's inevitable, really. In some ways it will be amazing, in others a little sad.