Learning computers

My journey to technology began in the 1980s on the Oregon Trail. I was introduced to computers serving a sort of smart-Atari function. Games intended to stealthily teach unsuspecting youth math, spelling, and thinking skills were all the rage. I remember spending hours playing Oregon Trail, a campy historical game intended to teach kids the perils of pioneer life. On the Oregon Trail I learned a little about hunting, selecting supplies at the general store, and loss when the pioneer with my best friend's name got Typhoid and died. I also learned a little about computers. For me, learning settlement history and math were insignificant byproducts of the strange exhilaration I felt piloting a cartoonish Conestoga wagon down the pale green path portrayed on the old Macintosh monitor.

Most all of my technological milestones – up until late in my high school career – were restricted to school. Despite my parents’ passion for education, neither is especially at home in the high-tech world. They are both vastly intelligent people, capable of comprehending most anything they set their minds to, but neither really places a premium on techie knowledge.

"Home" computers

The first computer in my home – an early Apple with a tiny monitor and an enormous desktop – was a hand-me-down from my Aunt Joyce. My mom, a single mother with many financial responsibilities, purchased a new machine for our home when I was in college in the late 1990s. Once I chose journalism as a career it seemed important for me to have access to a computer at all times and so my mom purchased a Gateway computer with design capabilities and more bells and whistles than either of us ever figured out how to use. For our household it was quite an expensive undertaking and seemed to signal to me the importance and privilege of having this technology at my fingertips any time of day.

During college my computing fears - produced by previous lack of access - lessened. Although I had used computers fairly regularly in classes and designing our high school yearbook, I was often perplexed and aggravated by the actions of these machines that so often seemed to run at their own whims rather than mine. Once I joined the college newspaper staff I was quickly thrown into a computer-rich newsroom that demanded I compose, post, and edit stories on our newsroom network. I don’t remember much emphasis on the Web as a research tool yet, but during my sophomore year I did page design using QuarkXPress and Adobe Photoshop.

Working for a living

The college and professional newsroom environment was invaluable to me when it came to gaining knowledge and comfort with computers – most specifically Macs. I learned to play, try things, screw up, lock up machines, and correct mistakes without completely destroying my own or other users’ work. Suddenly I saw computers not as adversaries whose random “bombs” and error messages had to be anticipated, but as a means to making my words more meaningful, visually appealing, and useful.

After graduation, I joined the staff of a daily newspaper, a job that demanded even more hi-tech knowledge. Again I used word processing and design programs, but was also expected to use the AP Wire server and an imagesetter. This became a nightmare for me as it seemed the imagesetter locked up every time I came near it.  With the pressures of a deadline and an irate pressman, technology again became my enemy.