Patience is a Virtue...maybe

     We all know it:  technology keeps growing and growing, as do its outreaches, innovations and shininess.  We can't deny it:  technology has helped us catch up with shows when we can't watch their first airing, put together impressive work presentations, and organize our hundreds (if not thousands) of media items in our own digital library.  New search engines, media players, and social spots keep coming out, making access to anything and everything at our fingertips.  We have moved from desktops to laptops, from laptops to netbooks, from netbooks to touch screen tablets.  Technology innovators have been finding ways to bring already convenient tools to the next level when we didn't even think that it could be even more effortless.  We can try to resist the new technology that is being dished out, but we all cave in once in a while (admit it). 
     As much as we buy in to the new technology that has been coming out, do we stop to think of our life before these luxuries?  That's right, luxuries:  because it is not imperative that we have a touch screen phone that allows us to sling shot a blobular shaped bird into an unstable stick-and-stone tower or to declare ourselves as the mayor of a consistently visited location; our survival is not based on whether we have the next version of a phone or computer from a mega-technology company; life will go on if you wait until getting home to call your family or friends to see what exactly they did that day.  Do we remember our first encounter with a computer?  How about when we got our first cell phone?  I used a computer a computer for the first time in 6th grade when it was a required elective, and we learned how to type.  My first cell phone was my sweet 16 present, and that was because my parents wanted me to be able to call home if I was staying after school for drama club.  It had 2 games on it: bowling and mini golf.  It was glorious.  I had never used my parents' cell phones before; and then I finally had my own.  Before then, I had the lovely tasks of updating my little address book of all of my friends' contact information (I even remembered at least 5 of my friends' numbers; I can't say that now).  Nowadays, I see some of my students being brought to school with their parents' phone in hand, or talking about having their own iPod (even if it is a hand-me-down).  They are playing games on technology that allows them the ability to play games: a touch screen is the most direct way of manipulating a device.  When we give children time to play math games on our class PC, we see the difference in their ability to navigate the game.  (On a tangent, my favorite is watching children learn that real bowling in a bowling alley is not the same as Wii bowling).
     What did we do for research papers before we had internet access faster than dial-up?  Do we remember what a Table of Contents and an index are?  Bibliography cards and note cards, anyone?  Remember when we were able to pick a book from the library resources, and actually be able to trust it as a reliable resource for our paper the first time we read it?  Yes, with the innovations of the internet and search engines came speed and outreach, but of course speedy reliable research is too good to be true; now comes the issue of finding reliable sources from the thousands of matches for your search query.  Even if the resources are reliable, chances are you have stumbled upon a wiki, which is really a collection of various sources to put into one collaborative article; this would require you to find the original source of the information that you wish to include in your paper.  Having to dig for the original source may require more work than it led on.
     How did we ever get through life without having our e-mail constantly updated in our pockets?  Whatever happened to taking time out at the end of the night to check your daily e-mail?  E-mail was meant to be faster than paper mail, but instead of being content with getting new mail by the end of the day, we are not waiting for new mail by the minute.  What did we do before we had constantly connected e-mail, or text, or even phones?  What did we do with our time? 
     I see this kind of questioning in students who are younger and younger.  I feel like some part of their childhood is gone because their attention to new technology makes them oblivious to classic games of our yesteryear.  If they are bored, they need something to occupy them now.  If they want to play a game, they want to it to pick it up and know how to play it now (forget about setting up a board game, reviewing rules, delegating order of turns, etc.).  When these children come to school, how do they feel when they sit at their desks with their access to technology is with tools not as up to date, time that is more limited, and the use is controlled by the teachers rather than on their own.  What happens when children are used to having what they want at their finger tips immediately?  How do we know we are holding their attention in school when they could be thinking about the same things we do when we feel "detached" from our technological means of communication?