One more technology story

Last post was a story about a woman who we referred to as both L Tompkins and Linda T. This seemed to be an effective practice in protecting her identity so we will use the same method to protect the next persons identity.

Phil T is an old fashioned man living in a cutting edge world. He is the type of Man that would still use a rock to shave had his wife not purchased an electric razor for him for Christmas. He may not understand most technologies but to survive he has been forced to adapt and engage in their practices.

The first time I saw a cell phone was a phone he was given by his employer and was a size of a brick and a half. Being compact was clearly not a design concern in those days, like they are now. They would later upgrade him to a phone that was just under the size of a full brick whose outgoing audio piece would flip open and closed to shrink the size of the phone. Both of these phones were never to be used for anything other than emergencies and if he was called for work related reasons. I never saw him make an outgoing call from either of these phones, for all I knew they were incapable of doing so.

My sophomore year of high school was the first time that our household had internet access. I use that term loosely because at 28 kb/second it was 50 times slower than what the standard is for today. Phil T would occasionally use the internet to check his email, and once a year to file his taxes, but that was about the extent of his use. He was very cautious of the internet after hearing all of the horror stories of viruses that can be contracted via the internet.

My Freshman year of college I was set free. I was on a network that had internet access up to 100 times faster than what I had previously known at home. This opened up an entire new world to me. Most notably the ability to be signed on to instant messenger without tying up the phone line.

Less than two weeks into my first year of college Phil T happened to be signed on to the internet. The way his internet service provider worked is that when you signed on to the internet it automatically signed you in to the messenger as well. I decided I would try to have a quick chat with him. I typed "Hey D__, how r u doing?"(I have left out the final two letters of the first word to protect his identity)

After about 5 minutes there was no reply.

"D__, it's me, your son...In Seattle. Just type something in the box below and hit send...It is called instant messaging."

immediately after I sent the message he signed off. I imagined how panicked he must have been. I'm certain he thought he had encountered a super sophisticated virus who knew private information about him. As a precaution I would not be suprised if he bypassed logging off, and just unplugged the computer form the wall.

Later that day I called Phil T and asked him if he was online earlier in the day. His reply was that he had been but shut the computer off when he felt like there may have been a hacker on his computer. he claimed that they knew his name and that I was in Seattle. When I informed him that it was in fact me he fell silent. I could faintly hear his whiskers rubbing against the receiver. After 15 seconds of confused silence he asked "Where did you learn to hack computers?"

Phil T grew up in a world where phones were used for emergencies and special occasions only and now found himself in a world that had begun to use phone for casual correspondence and now to be replaced by the internet. Only a few months later to be replaced again by phones, only cellular this time. Things moved too quickly for him to keep up, and to this day is apprehensive about buying into any new technologies for fear that once he figures it out he will be asked to adapt to a new one. This is a legitimate fear, and in most cases would be true. I just find it interesting the ability of my generation to adapt to the rapid technology changes in our world. And Phil T's concern with those rapid changes and ultimately his lack of trust in them. The poor guy barely answers his cell phone.