Bluetooths/Phones/Interwebs I'm reading that Thurston Moore book and have been revisiting Sonic Youth (especially Sister and Evol) and was walking around the apartment with earbuds in doing chores (I mean, working from home) and had that moment where I realized how crazy it was that decently high-quality audio is transmitted from a small black slab sitting somewhere in the living room to the tiny wireless earbuds I had.
I was raised with a healthy love/respect for music that was probably inspired/pushed by my mother. The amount of time I spent in record stores as a young pup was a bit much. (oddly, I'm not one of those people with thousands of vinyl records - I've shedded almost all of it)
So, teen me would be shocked that the shiny black slab (i.e. my phone) can pull up 95% of any music I could ever want to listen to. Teen me would then be shocked that the small marble sized earbuds somehow get this music wirelessly and have a weirdly long range. Longer range than the 80's era cordless phone we had.
Bicycle-Related If not in record shops, I was often on my bike. At some point, I became obsessed with competitive cycling which was a difficult hobby in the 1980's. The only race in Europe you ever heard of was the Tour de France, and that was just the box scores in the paper with absolutely no context or commentary. In later years, CBS sports starting doing an afternoon episode covering the Tour. Was that weekly? Or just one big episode? I can't recall.
As I write this, it's a Saturday morning. I have the Tour Tracker app open with live commentary as well as a live map with every rider tracked who is in the Tour of Spain (Vuelta a Espana) that is happening right now. I've also got the TV on and have the live feed from NBC sports on.
Amazing. From getting basic box scores for ONE race I'm watching the Tour of Spain live via the stats on my ipad and the feed on TV.
Travel & Phones Two friends and I did a 6-7 week tour around Europe after our first year of college (so still teens but barely). When I think about that trip, I recall two elements that have completely changed: photography and general communication.
I had a small chintzy camera and film. I was toting rolls of film with me in my huge backpack the entire time (we were camping and not hostel-ing). Of course we had no idea of what images we would get or if I had screwed up a setting or anything. I didn't see these photos until about two weeks after we got back. Then I think about our trip to Switzerland last year where our families and friends (and instagram followers) were getting to see photos from that actual day or moment. My teens self would not believe this.
Then communication. On this particular trip, we were sending postcards that would take a week or two to arrive. Calling home was crazy expensive and the connection was not amazing. Our families had no idea where we were. We had 'schedules' of course, but they were like 'we'll be at George's uncle house by this date'. The fact that I can be in a foreign country and my parents can call and ask how to fix their TV remote is amazing (with an asterisk ).
Extra 4th item: My teen self would be impressed that I had access to a time machine.
