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My spawn point.
I fall within generation Z. The last letter of the alphabet makes it slightly fore-boding. My generation has watched as smart phones took the planet by storm along with the touch screen technology that accompanied them. Some members of my age bracket including myself are worried about the rapid development that artificial intelligence has had. -
Earliest interaction with computers
2000- My very earliest memories of interacting with any computer would be my memories of learning how to use a PS1. We had such classics as “Crash Warped World”. I was very young and was originally incapable of using the controller simultaneously while looking at the screen, this meant I would need to first decide what button I would need to press on screen, then I would look down at the controller to deliver the input. Of course myself and my abilities have grown since, but it is a fond memory. -
Flip Phone
2004- My parents had the same cell phone, a small Verizon flip phone. It would be around this time (1st grade) that my parents would allow me to leave the house alone, to be with friends, or to get a snack. Where the technology comes into play is that anytime I’d leave I’d have to take one of their phones with me and I had to show them that I had their phone numbers memorized. Flip phones were a cool piece of retro tech, their akin to being the floppy discs of the cell phone era. -
Earliest desktop/keyboard usage
2005- In 2nd grade our class would once a week go into our schools computer lab. It was a dark room that I only ever saw illuminated by the dozens of monitors that lined the rows of desks. What was interesting about this class is that most of what we learned was taught to us in the form of games with not very much emphasis put into just how prevalent computer usage would become/need to be for us. Perhaps the teachers didn’t even know themselves, but luckily I had the exposure to desktops young. -
First Smartphone
2011- Between my 6th grade and 7th grade years my mother gifted me an IPhone. This was a huge technological leap but back then I was mostly interested in the revolutionary touch screen and the accompanying games that arose with the technology around that time. Ever since that first IPhone I’ve been hooked, the ease of use, their resiliency towards malware, and overall durability (outside of a shattered screen or 2) has outweighed all of the short comings and to this day I still use an IPhone. -
Nintendo Switch
2018- Nintendo really outdid themselves, they charged $300 for in my opinion the greatest hand held gaming device brought to market to date. I had to wait a year however because they were sold out no matter what city or store I went to. Eventually (~1 year after release) I walked into a best buy that still had a couple left from their restock. I quickly swapped my cash for the device and the feeling of having earned it through my own leg work, using my own USD that I worked for was gratifying.