Modern gadgetry is 'cooler than cool'

March 21, 2010 12:37 am

WHEN I was 12, I asked for and got a tape recorder for Christmas.

That doesn't sound like a big deal now, but back then, the thick, heavy gizmo with open tape reels and a microphone the size of a bluebird was just shy of "Mission Impossible" gadgetry.

I did just about everything possible with that green G.E. unit, from recording my sister's conversations with friends to scaring grandparents who didn't know it wasn't me talking under the couch but a tape I'd recorded in the privacy of my closet.

It wasn't really a practical piece of electronics, both too large and too heavy to take much farther than the kitchen table.

But to my young mind, which thought there was nothing cooler than James Bond or "The Man From Uncle," owning the only one on the street made me feel cooler than cool.

As I drove to an assignment this week with a flat box the size of my hand telling me which turns to make--in a British accent, no less--it hit me how far technology has leapt.

This after I'd gone to the Internet to read about the house I was going to visit, clicked one button to get turn-by-turn directions and another to see what the weather would be like when I got there.

I clicked again to double-check my bank balance to make sure there was cash in place to get lunch when the interview was done.

It was all so much easier than wrestling a paper map, staring at a barometer or pulling out my checkbook and a calculator.

The GPS unit that I have set to sound like Miss Moneypenny is the latest gadget for me, coming long after many have been using these things.

Yes, it gets annoying after a while to have this brassy voice coming out of the mini-screen.

But to watch the little blue car on the screen move by every road that I pass, telling me how fast I'm going, how fast I should be going and where to get the cheapest gas or closest Chinese food, is darned impressive.

I'm not quite as much of a gadget-getter as I was as a youngster.

But if my little Brit of a GPS can keep me from wandering around looking for Big Ox Lane, that's a big step up in life. Even if I want to tell that bossy woman to shut up every now and then.

"All right, already!" I said on my first drive with the machine, before realizing I didn't need the Brit in a box yapping at full volume.

Many young people today take for granted the sheer amount of information at their fingertips.

Yes, I know I'm sounding like Grandpa here, but I can recall many a school project where research for term papers meant running over to the shelf and pulling out the World Book Encyclopedia.

And, even though the teacher always said not to, pretty much taking what it said and just shuffling a few words so it wasn't pure copying.

Talking to a couple for a column earlier this week in North Stafford, we discussed how each home had a set of encyclopedia on a bookcase in the living room.

The wife noted she bought a set when she first started working, eager to expand her knowledge on subjects from A to Z.

I asked a top-notch teacher recently if all the technology changes what students need to learn, putting the emphasis on how to learn instead of building a body of knowledge.

"Not necessarily," she said, noting that from languages to math to history itself, you don't know the questions if you don't understand enough information to ask.

Like, "Are you sure we turn here, little British GPS?"

How rude. She never answers.

Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com