By: Blonde One
Well, are you a native or an immigrant? You might think that I’m being very un-PC here so let me explain …
The Two Blondes have recently learned some new phrases at work which neither of us like really. Apparently if you are 20 years old or younger you are classified as a digital native: in other words you have grown up in the digital age and can easily use any new piece of technology that you come across! This is certainly true of Little Miss Blonde who is very comfortable with all things technical. If you are unlucky enough to be the grand old age of 21 or more then you are a digital immigrant! There are so many things wrong with these new classifications. Firstly, I object (very strongly) to being too old for something by such a long way (I’m not telling you how far away!). Secondly, I don’t think I like being called an immigrant. It has connotations of not belonging and I very definitely do belong. Thirdly, Blonde Two is very good at digital things. For instance she knows how to change the photo at the top of this page: impressive hey?! Fourthly, it’s not my fault! When I was at school (yes I can still remember that far back) there were only 8 computers in the whole building. If you think that’s a shock, wait for the next bit … Only the boys were allowed to use them!!! I will leave you to decide if my school was like this because it was so many decades ago, or if it was just plain old fashioned and perhaps a little bit post! So you see, if my school had spent more money on computers and not been so sexist (they also insisted that girls did needlework while boys did metalwork) then I too would be firmly placed in the digital age.
That’s my excuse and I’m very firmly sticking to it!
I am 74. I have just booked a night at YHA Portland ON LINE after logging on in an internet café. I can paint pictures and manipulate photos in Photoshop, including USE OF LAYERS, but remembering passwords is beyond me.
I don’t think they could classify me. I am definitely resident, and I do have digits, albeit they are a bit arthritic.
Walking and ICT skills, I have a feeling you may be a Blonde Conrad. Maybe we shall find out!!
I’m thinking of dyeing my hair.
Same kind of situation at my school except that I broke the mould a bit. I was the first girl to take O’Level Computer Studies and I was the only one in the group to get an A. My Dad is a whizz programmer but I have to confess to relying on Mr Blonde Two for most things ICT at home.
My dad is 85, and regularly participates in online forums about classical music, emails a network of fellow Sibelius buffs, orders CDs online that he can’t find anywhere else, and a host of other things. All self taught! And his generation don’t talk about immigrants in favourable ways!
You may or may not remember that the head of maths came to visit your Dad to request help with the school’s ONLY computer of the time – a research machine, i think it was called; it was in the library. It was during that conversation that Dad let slip that I was a maths teacher & that is how the next 21 years saw me in room 14 at your school. Towards the end of that time, a notice went up in the staff room about computer training for staff. I tried to sign up for it and was told that I was TOO OLD! So you were to female and I was past it! Anyway, shortly after wards, the school applied to become a technology college; a requirement for this was that ALL teachers had to be trained to use computers. I passed with flying colours……..and then retired! Blonde2’s ginger Mum
I have a sneaking suspicion that when I was at school a computer would have taken up about half of the Albert Hall, but hear this, you blondes! I had the county’s first primary school Music Laboratory installed at our school and in the corridor outside the music room, there was – you’ve got it – a computer, running a MUSIC programme. You’d laugh if you used that programme now, but it was a start and many youngsters used it – and what’s more, while they were out in the corridor on their own, they didn’t set off the fire alarm or any other mayhem – just wrote their own tunes which played in either squeaks or plunks – their choice!
I think, being above the music rooms, that squeaks and plunks are still the only choices available.