Will my daughters marry robots?
It's scary to think that my kids will one day use ubiquitous technology that will be completely foreign to me.
I liken this theory to my Dad and e-mail: he just recently learned to use the "Reply" button to respond to my e-mail. Before, he forwarded all correspondence. (Although, judging by the number of forwards I get from him in my inbox on a daily basis, he still views e-mail as a tool to send me the hilariousness of the Internet.)
So, it's inevitable that my daughter will come home from school in the near future and try to explain the newest Google to me, and I'll just scratch my head and walk away.
The sad part is we're closer to this day than we think, and I blame the Amazon Kindle.
It started when I read a post over at The Writer's Coin that called the Kindle its "Gadget of the Year."
I have heard of the Kindle, but I have never seen one in the wild. But now I wanted to hold one, feel one, see what all the fuss was about. Luckily, my colleague has one, so I asked her if I could give it a test run.
Surprisingly, I didn't hate it. (Sidenote: If I were to give my Dad, an avid reader, a Kindle for Christmas, I'm pretty sure he would drop dead of a heart attack.) It's no book, but it had a readable interface that is about as close to a book as it gets, without actually, you know, being a book.
However, in what is probably the first sign of the technology-induced ignorance I fear, I can't see myself purchasing one of these machines. I prefer the feel of a real book with real pages to turn as opposed to the square-shaped device that flips the page at the touch of a button.
Not only that, but a large collection of books looks much cooler on a bookshelf than a lone Kindle collecting dust that houses my entire book collection in digital format.
But I know I'm in the minority; perhaps I'm even part of that borderline generation that will never truly embrace the e-reader. The demand is unprecedented, but I'm indifferent and I think the creators know this.
They're content to pass me by and, instead, market to the future consumers who will, inevitably, shape the face of this technology.
Like, my daughters.
Once all books are technological-ized, I'm afraid to see what comes next. Hopefully, I'll be able to unplug myself if it's too much to bear.
