If you are a Millennial, the digital age exploded around you, collected you to its bosom and invaded your very DNA with the almost innate ability to understand. If you were born between 1980 and today, you are a digital native, born speaking the language.
Remember when you had to either write that 350 page novel in longhand and then laboriously type it out, or pay a professional to do it for you? I didn’t think so. Most of you aren’t that old.
I remember taking typing class in high school. Typing. On a typewriter. With paper. No delete key.
As far as I can tell, everyone these days is born knowing how to perform all keyboard functions, from typing to grabbing a screen shot. And using Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
I’m a digital immigrant. I have basic knowledge of the language but I’ll never become truly proficient. I know nothing about the mysterious workings of computers, software, or the Internet. I know just enough to get into trouble when it comes to my Mac, and not nearly enough to access the no doubt wonderful performance features within the machine. I am able to read, write and reply to email, navigate–in the most basic way–around the interwebs, and (kinda sorta) use a writers tool known as Scrivener to produce fictional worlds for my readers.
The list of things I don’t know and can’t do is far longer. In fact, I’m so ignorant that I don’t even know what it is I have no knowledge of. I know, I know. That sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Like I said, I’m completely ignorant. Cut me some slack, would’ya?
I know this much: I still know how to type thanks to Mrs. McCulley in 10th grade, which was 33 years ago (do the math). I know (kinda sorta) what a hard drive is, and how to open a browser. I even set up this WordPress account so I can blog about things I know nothing about.
I also blog about things I know something about.
But not today.
~Paragraphs into Pages ~ 