From manual/mechanical to electronic/digital

IT’S during travels that thoughts of stopping the world and just gape in awe comes strong as reflections and realizations are borne from packing the basics of today: chargers, cables, and power banks on top of the gadgets - the ubiquitous mobile phone and the ever-reliable laptop.

Each time I pack these things comes the thought, who would have imagined in the 1980s, even the 1990s, that we will be needing to pack electric wires when we travel. I mean, for what?

The stark difference of the before 1990s to the present time was underlined in a two-night stay at one of the villas of the Marcos-built Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) in Tagaytay City earlier this year.

Bringing in my things into one of the two huge rooms of the villa, I unpacked my stuff and prepared to do some work while waiting for dinner, only to realize... there is no power outlet on the study table, and in fact, there is only one power outlet and it is on the wall beside the toilet. Meaning, it was far from any work surface. I made do, sitting on the floor and using a chair as my desk.

Comes the realization... yes. In those years of yore, no one needed an outlet anywhere near the study table. There is but the light switch. Power outlets are at the most, beside the bedside television as everything else are turned off and on using switches.

Now, not having a power outlet is such a big deal. Times have indeed changed.

Then there’s the booking of flights and hotels without having to dial a telephone. That would not have been possible just two decades ago. In fact, even after calling, you are not even assured that you’d get the room you reserved because chances are this front desk officer has forgotten to log it down.

Having lived through

black and white television to portable typewriters to IBM machines with daisy wheels and the first ever Aldus Pagemaker 1.0 and now being able to do most of my work on my mobile, I always spend a few minutes living in awe, and just enjoying the thrill this gives.

It’s my way of cranking up the gratitude meter, and putting some positive light on the day, no matter how lousy the day is turning out to be.

Seeing my first fax machine is as embedded in my memory as those early computers. It was much like those old mobile phones ... it came in a black bag, and you fed it thermal sheets, like sheets. Not rolls... so you wait in anticipation of the faxed message being longer than one sheet.

Worse, it wasn’t even your standard letter, legal, A4 size. It was square-ish short. I was glad when that model did not pick up and became obsolete a year after.

And who remembers that darn Mac mouse that you need to depress the whole time you are working on a piece on Pagemaker or the Corel Draw? That was one major index finger exercise I got.

Many of you may be snickering as I reveal my age. I say my generation has had the best experience ever as we went from the manual to mechanical and electrical, and now... electronics and digital, and we have corresponding stories to match each and every phase.

My memories are enough to entertain me while traveling alone as I not only see my mobile phone that I would often use to write articles on and email with, but also remember how huge those early years laptops were that I had to lug around.

Those days when in order to place a call using your prepaid mobile phone, you have to dial the whole set of numbers on the prepaid card before dialing the number you need to contact... each and every time you call.

We lived through it and now are most grateful for the convenience life has given us.

Even the third world speed of Internet in the Philippines is nothing to the crrreeeekkk-ikikikbrrrrrtttt... ding-ding-ding speed of a dial-up that allowed me a coffee break each for every photo I was downloading.

Grateful. Who wouldn’t be? saestremera@gmail.com