I saw another change last evening. The wife and I were going out to dinner with my son and his family. My grandson Mark will celebrate his 17th birthday this coming Tuesday. Last night after dinner we were going to an " escape room " as a part of his birthday celebration. Mark was bringing his " girlfriend " if that is what the kids still say and we were sure it was going to be a good time. My wife says, be sure to bring the camera, I want a few pictures. It was at that moment I saw that change and answered with, just bring your phone.
You would have to be a baby boomer to understand that I think. This technology has been around for a while now and the younger people take it for granted, not giving it a thought. I still don't think in terms that my phone is a camera. Or is it the camera that became a phone ? We did have cameras before we had phones. Although the first consumer camera, the one for you and I to use wasn't available until 1901 when Kodak introduced the Brownie. Strangely I can remember my parents having a Brownie. Still, it wasn't until 1994 that digital cameras came on the market, Apple quick time being the first. But I have wandered off a bit. For whatever reason last night I realized that I could just take the phone and not worry about lugging a camera along. I have heard that the cameras in the new phones are quite capable of doing as good a job as regular ones. It has only been 24 years since digital photography was introduced but I'm already getting used to it. Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks.
Anyway, so that was a sort of revelation to me, as funny as that sounds. I'm thinking in another twenty five years very few people will have a camera separate from their phones. We really are headed toward the Star Trek thing. I don't think their communicators could take pictures though, at least I never saw Kirk taking a selfie ! What was funny though was when we got to the " escape room " they had us place all our electronics in a locker. They don't want people taking pictures of their rooms. After, my daughter in law posts on Facebook how we went a whole hour without our phones. Obviously a rare thing for them to have happen to them. I thought I sensed some panic creeping in at the 45 minute mark. I thought it was because we hadn't solved the mystery yet, but maybe that wasn't it. It was fun working together to try to escape that room. And yes, we did it with about seven minutes to spare ! Don't tell but I kept my flip phone in my pocket, just in case of emergency. I think I can take a picture with it although I never have.
The whole " escape room " thing was an interesting diversion from the real world. For almost an hour we all worked together trying to solve the clues that would allow us to escape before the serial killer got back. I admit I did more watching that searching for clues. I'd say that was something that comes with age and maturity, the delight in watching others have fun. I didn't want to spoil the fun by just solving the mystery right off. That's the way I'm telling the story and it is my story. I did help with a couple clues though. The family all agree, we will have to do that again one day. It makes for a good memory. I am grateful for the many memories I have with the " kids. " We've been to a lot of places and done a lot of things together. It was like a one hour " staycation ! "
You would have to be a baby boomer to understand that I think. This technology has been around for a while now and the younger people take it for granted, not giving it a thought. I still don't think in terms that my phone is a camera. Or is it the camera that became a phone ? We did have cameras before we had phones. Although the first consumer camera, the one for you and I to use wasn't available until 1901 when Kodak introduced the Brownie. Strangely I can remember my parents having a Brownie. Still, it wasn't until 1994 that digital cameras came on the market, Apple quick time being the first. But I have wandered off a bit. For whatever reason last night I realized that I could just take the phone and not worry about lugging a camera along. I have heard that the cameras in the new phones are quite capable of doing as good a job as regular ones. It has only been 24 years since digital photography was introduced but I'm already getting used to it. Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks.
Anyway, so that was a sort of revelation to me, as funny as that sounds. I'm thinking in another twenty five years very few people will have a camera separate from their phones. We really are headed toward the Star Trek thing. I don't think their communicators could take pictures though, at least I never saw Kirk taking a selfie ! What was funny though was when we got to the " escape room " they had us place all our electronics in a locker. They don't want people taking pictures of their rooms. After, my daughter in law posts on Facebook how we went a whole hour without our phones. Obviously a rare thing for them to have happen to them. I thought I sensed some panic creeping in at the 45 minute mark. I thought it was because we hadn't solved the mystery yet, but maybe that wasn't it. It was fun working together to try to escape that room. And yes, we did it with about seven minutes to spare ! Don't tell but I kept my flip phone in my pocket, just in case of emergency. I think I can take a picture with it although I never have.
The whole " escape room " thing was an interesting diversion from the real world. For almost an hour we all worked together trying to solve the clues that would allow us to escape before the serial killer got back. I admit I did more watching that searching for clues. I'd say that was something that comes with age and maturity, the delight in watching others have fun. I didn't want to spoil the fun by just solving the mystery right off. That's the way I'm telling the story and it is my story. I did help with a couple clues though. The family all agree, we will have to do that again one day. It makes for a good memory. I am grateful for the many memories I have with the " kids. " We've been to a lot of places and done a lot of things together. It was like a one hour " staycation ! "
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