Hey Bookworms!
It’s Friday! I haven’t been to ye olde confessional in a long time, but there’s something I need to get off my chest. It’s no secret that I adore historical fiction with an intensity that likely isn’t healthy. Sometimes I get so swoony over Jamie Fraser (or something totally unrelated to Jamie Fraser. I mean, not EVERYTHING is about Jamie Fraser, right?!) that I put on a wistful face and forget how RAD it is to live right now.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Sometimes I’ll just sit around thinking, “can you imagine life before electricity?!” Or, “wouldn’t it be weird to grow up with horses and then CARS happen?!” Or, “Indoor plumbing is the bomb diggity. I’m glad it’s a thing!” Recently I had a revelation. I AM A HISTORICAL FIGURE.
Yeah. What’s as life changing as electricity, indoor plumbing, and cars?! The friggin INTERNET. I’ve lived on both sides of it! The digital age, y’all. Someday our grandchildren are going to goggle at us the way I goggle about the pre-electricity, horse riding, stink fest I love so dearly. I’m my own historical fiction heroine now, y’all. Watch out!
Now that I’m basically my own American Girl Doll, I simply must know. Have any of y’all pondered how history will view our little sliver of now?
Quirky Chrissy
Well…there was this one time in college…the power went out and we were bored…so my roommate and best friends who lived on my dorm floor and I sat around by tap light and told a rotating story that involved sleeping with the founding fathers…
Jennine G.
Haha! Honestly, I think we are “the society” before a dystopian/postapocalyptic future. Much of the world seems pretty sad and getting crazier and I can just see the things that would drive a society into either of these scenarios.
AMB
What a fun post! I often marvel at how different my children’s childhood is compared to the one I had. Both are fabulous (I hope they’ll feel that way when they’re older!), but different. Through the internet and gadgets that I could only dream of, they have access to a much bigger world than I did. I say “bigger world,” but really it’s a smaller one for them, and it’s great in so many ways. I love history, but I don’t romanticize it. I completely agree with you when you say it’s RAD to live right now!
Charleen
Yeah, the internet in general, and smartphones/tablets/not-being-tied-to-a-computer-to-access-said-internet in particular. Although I feel like if I were maybe 10 years older it would be easier for me to appreciate just how life-changing it is. Because, while I remember a life without internet, it was a childhood without internet. I was dipping my toe in it in high school, and then it really blew up in college, and that’s such a time of transition anyway. I think it would have been interesting to have been an adult without internet, and then with internet, and just a little bit more aware of that transition while it was happening.
Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader
Ha ha, love this! I like to freak my kids out by telling them about life before microwaves and computers 😉
Amy @ Read a Latte
It’s really weird but I think a lot about how there weren’t always roads or cars, just like a dirt trail and covered wagons and it took AGES to get anywhere!
Monika @ Lovely Bookshelf
I want a Katie American Girl doll! How do we make that happen?? 😉
Andi
This is the best post! I think about things like this all the time. About witnessing huge world events as they happen, and as you said, even living on both sides of the internet. David and I will sometimes stop mid-convo and say, “Do you realize Greyson will never remember a time without smart phones?” LOL 🙂
Jenny @ Reading the End
I think about this CONSTANTLY. Since I am right on the edge between being a digital native and being a digital immigrant, I think it’s interesting to see kids be totally baffled by the idea of a world without the internet. Frankly I am rather baffled by the idea of a world without the internet. How did we ever manage?? I love the internet so!
Trish
That picture has me DYING. Are you counting down the days until the show returns? Because it’s now less than two months. Earlier today we were talking about the Easter Bunny. “Yes, he’s coming the day after Outlander returns!” I may have received a sharp elbow for that.
But back to the history part, I think about this ALL the time with my kids. My 3 year old knows how to use my iphone and the little one isn’t too far behind. Part of me wonders how we functioned before Wikipedia or IMDB. I mean, how did we look up what other movies that actor was in before IMDB??
ThatAshGirl
Yeah if you Google my name you get an Indian Soccer Player and an Indian Doctor. Both of which are dudes. I blame the fact that England and Portugal both colonized parts of India (a lot of Indians from Goa have Portuguese last names). And yeah, as we know from Gone with the Wind, Ashley was traditionally a man’s name. So yeah. In real life I am neither Indian, nor a dude.