Having been brought into this ever developing world well before the Second Great Gobal Conflict, I, unfortunately, don't have an intuitive knowledge of things with micropocessors and digital interfaces, much less any understanding of how to make them operate.
As a case in point, after my lovely wife suggested that she would like to visually record various things, I gave her a pocket sized Compact Digital Camcorder for Christmas. She is similarly, but to a much lesser extent, handicapped around such thiungs. Naturely, it was one of the first things opened that wonderous morning so that all of the present openings could be recorded. As it turns out this supposedly simple device, has more options and features than ever suspected and just getting it to record the events without fully reading it's 34 page instruction manual looked very remote. Fortunately with a few quick machinations, her grandson had it working just fine. Ah, the wonder of Youth!
Being born in the era of the AM Radio, 78 rpm Phono, and dial Telephone, the leaps in communication and information are almost overwhelming for "A Christmas Story" Ralphie kind of guy like me..
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written by littlefaith, January 03, 2009
I don't believe it's a matter of when you were born. It's the type of person you are, and whether this new stuff is relevant to what you really care to do. My father, an architect who's used to using computers for his daily work, was living in Taiwan while the rest of our family was in the US, so he was always pushing all the rest of us to learn how to use voice-over-IP applications, set up webcams so he could keep in touch with us. Whereas my younger sister at the age of fourteen was still afraid to set her alarm clock which had a total of two knobs. Go figure.
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written by Soapy Dishwater, January 04, 2009
Right now I'm watching my daughter dress & re-dress her dolls she got for x-mas and thinking about how much fun I had doing the same thing with my dolls and remembering how much fun I had playing dolls with my sister and my mother's dolls and grandmother's fragile china dolls. I'm absolutely positive my daughter will play dolls with her children.
I wonder if someday my daughter will sit with her children watching the video we took of her opening her doll present from x-mas 2008. I wonder what these kinds of videos will mean in the lives of those children...
I have a friend who video taped his child being born. How weird will it be for that child to see his birth over and over throughout the years?
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Now we know better. The brain is plastic and dynamic throughout life and, while there is indeed an early window when neurons are more actively forming connections and learning happens at a faster pace, older brains are quite capable of forming new connections and learning complex subjects.
What's more, doing so is good for the ole noodle. The proverbial "use it or loose it" certainly pertains to the brain. Learning is like exercise for the brain and mental aerobics can help stave off Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. So now's the time to flex your cerebrum. And don't stop at video cameras. Learning a language, doing complex math problems, learning three new words a day, and comprehending new technical materials can add functional years to your brain's life. Unfortunately, reading in itself is not the best of cognitive exercises. It simply doesn't challenge the brain enough to keep those new connections forming.
That video camera of yours just might hold the key to more than just capturing memories for posterity; it could help you keep them where they belong--in your head.