We're Old Schooling It Right Into The New Millenia

Way back in the day, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in school, I was told that one day things I know and love would be obsolete. Not being blessed with the gift of seeing into the future, my mind couldn't fathom what things would disappear into oblivion.

I remember having the conversation about the invention of cell phones. It was said that everyone would have a personal phone, and could take it with them wherever they went. You could even call them when they were driving in a car! Can you imagine? I mean, when you were just getting used to the fact that cordless phones were a "thing," and you didn't have to be tied to the spiral cord any longer, anything as newfangled as a cellular device was far fetched.

Our family owns several cell phones. Land lines are becoming as obsolete as corded phones.

One of the scariest things I heard back in the day, when I was in school, was that books would become nearly extinct in the future. Being an avid reader, I couldn't fathom this. I vowed never to give up my books. I'd probably have the last book on Planet Earth, because I was never giving them up, mind you, NEVER.

Once I downloaded the Kindle App on my iPod Touch, I sold most of the books in my small library, keeping only my very favorites. I have more books in my Kindle than I ever did on my book shelves. We bought a Kindle Fire for Luke when his iPod died, because it can be a gamer as well as an eReader. The child that reads would love it.

And he does. He plays games on his Kindle daily. He has the farting app, and the vuvuzela app, and Angry Birds. He does puzzles and word games. But he doesn't read. Luke prefers to hold a book in his hand and turn the pages. And he can't take the Kindle to school to read in his spare time.

We bought Luke a stack of books for Christmas. I will always support reading, and if Luke prefers to hold a book rather than read electronically, I will continue to buy him books. Our family may be heading into the new age as fast as every other family, but we will be old school to encourage reading for as long as we need to be.

Some things are just better the old fashioned way, I guess.

1 comment:

wendy said...

I'm with Luke! I love reading out of Books! it's just not the same as turning a real book page!