One of the earliest experiences I can remember with technology minus the landline phone with the cord was when I got my first cell phone. It was the old nokia phone with the antenna that you pushed in and out in order to have better connection. It was used strictly as a phone. You could call on it, and play like one or two games. The main game was snake, literally a little snake going through little mazes trying to eat the little blocks. I remember not being very good at it. In my household it was a pretty big deal to even have a cell phone. It was that feeling of, wow, I made it. Then came my cousin, he had a phone that did this new thing called texting. He was typing away on his phone, so naturally I was confused. Who could he be calling so much? He quickly made it clear to me that he was texting. This wasn’t your standard texting that we all know and love today, this was you pushed buttons two or three times to get the letter you wanted. Not long after that, they came out with t9 version where you could select different words in the memory bank to speed it up. Mind blown. Within days, I went in to the cell phone store to see if I could add texting to mine. The answer I got was, well you can do pay by message. Being a young kid, my first thought was, how much am I really going to use it? Not much I’m sure. Who knew? Of course with that came all of the little shops and kiosks in the mall that sold cell phone accessories. How about an attachable antenna that causes your screen to blink different colors? Why not? Seemed like a good idea. Side note: it wasn’t. It basically wrecked my phone because it wasn’t compatible. I was still on a cell phone plan with my mom, needless to say, that was a fun conversation about why I needed a new phone.

One story I think my parents would tell about my experiences with technology would probably center around video games and different video game systems. Growing up, I had multiple gaming systems (some I still have) and it always seemed like I got the new, exciting system. We were those kids on the block who’s friends would come over because we had a Nintendo. Wait, now the Sega Genesis is coming out? We had to have it, and I did. From there it went to Playstation 1, then Playstation 2, Playstation 3, and now currently the Playstation 4. The better the systems got, the more I had to upgrade. The funny thing is, I have held on to a Nintendo and still have my Sega genesis. I play them on occasion.