If the next few years bring changes like we have seen the past 20 years, then I am sunk. Knowledge and technology are changing our lives so quickly that although I am trying, it is a losing battle.
We don’t realize how our lifestyles have drastically changed. It happens in steps and we so quickly forget how things WERE.
You know, driverless cars, copy machines that build artificial limbs, thumb scans, grocery stores with no checkers ... all of these and more.
Cellphones. Let’s begin there.
We don’t memorize phone numbers any more. We used to scrawl phone numbers down on paper napkins, backs of grocery receipts — anything we could get our hands on at the moment. But now, we enter phone numbers into our cellphone directory and never give them another thought. Yes, I realize that some of you haven’t quite jumped into this cellphone thing, but most people have.
Because of cellphones, we don’t have to plan where we should meet and when. Nope. We call each other on the cells. “Where are you?” “Can you meet me in an hour?” “Will you run by the grocery store and pick up some bacon?”
In the earlier years, our family often vacationed where malls were still busy places. We’d separate but arrange when we would meet and where. Usually, the youngsters didn’t show up on time. We waited and hoped that the kids hadn’t been kidnapped.
Another change.
We seldom cut articles, ads, etc. out of the newspaper. Nearly every article in every major newspaper is archived online and can be instantly shared by email.
These days we can Tweet, Skype, and message each other. We communicate through social media like Facebook. Oh you don’t? I bet you at least send emails. Who writes letters any more? Generally speaking, snail mail personal communication is a thing of the past.
It was not too many years ago that Fred and I bought a GPS. When we traveled, we took the box out of hiding, and hooked it up. No more. Now we use the Google maps app on the phone. Our GPS gadget is left at home.
I no longer can quickly figure math in my head. Truthfully, I never did. Fred still can. He added sales taxes and figure totals for too long to forget. Today’s Millennials don’t even try. Why should they? There’s a calculator on any computer keypad as well as the cellphone calculator. Oh, and speaking of not keeping up? There’s an app now called PhotoMath that can solve any equation just by taking a picture with your smartphone’s camera. What?!
Watches used for telling time are over. Smartphone users do not bother with watches anymore unless they are wearing them as fitness trackers or fashion statements. The younger generation won’t be able to tell time by hands on the clock anyway. Like cursive writing, analog clocks are close to extinction.
Do you own a CD or record collection? You might want to know that CDs have well, totally gone south. Remember CD collections on the shelves? Oh, you have such a collection? That’s nice.
What happened to long playing records? Fred and I possess oodles of old vinyls, and probably need to get rid of them, but where would we take them? Who wants them? Turntables have come back, so there’s an inkling of use for records, but it’s hard to imagine CDs doing the same.
Have any of you stepped into a phone booth lately? Have you seen one in the past 20 years? They sneaked into oblivion, didn’t they? Little kids won’t understand why Clark Kent had to step into a big glass box to change into his tights and cape. “Mom, what’s that!” they will exclaim. They’ll probably think it’s a time machine!
Have you clung to the old habit of making darn sure you are seated in front of the television at the precise time a live show is broadcast? Do you really? Most of us don’t.
We record favorite shows now, and we watch them when we want to watch them. We fast forward the ads most of the time, (which personally, I don’t think is fair to the sponsors), and we don’t give it a second thought. The old-fashioned recording tapes are passé too.
Now we push the red button on our remote, and we watch our program any time we choose.
Today’s kids have no idea what film is, and have no idea what “developing film” means. Even the movie industry doesn’t use film as a rule. Film industry? No, it should be called “Digital Movie Industry.”
Yes, we are in trouble. Fred and I still can’t even operate our car radio, yet.

Judi Tabler lives in Pawnee County and is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune. She can be reached at bluegrasses@gmail.com. Visit her website juditabler.com.