from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shadowkat
1. Did you have a cell phone prior to your thirties? Did they exist?
No. And no they didn't exist. Mobile phones existed when I was a kid, but the equipment for them took up a good bit of the trunk of a car.
2. Did you have cable when you were a little kid? When did you first get cable?
No. It didn't exist, either. As far as I know it began when I was in grade school as a way for isolated communities and those living in the mountains to get TV service at all. I still don't have cable or satellite.
3. Do you know what 8-track tapes are and did you ever own an 8-track tape player?
Yes, I knew very well when they were popular. They were a big fad among kids five or six years younger than me. The quality of the sound was crap, and system was designed so poorly the tapes frequently got destroyed. Really only suitable for teens and others whose favorite music changed very frequently. No I never owned one.
4. Did you own cassette tapes and walkman or tape player in high school and college?
Again they didn't exist, then. In college I owned a reel-to-reel tape machine for music, and used it through my roommate's hi-fi (i. e. record player & fancy FM radio). Certainly not portable! I have owned cassette tapes and players.
5. When did you get your first DVD player?
I don't really know, but it came in a computer. I bought a TV with a built-in DVD player with the big switch to HDTV.
6. Did you learn how to type on a typewriter? Did you own a typewriter growing up?
Yes, I learned to type on a typewriter in junior high school. My family owned a typewriter for the family business, but I wasn't supposed to play with it. Once I learned how to type, I had to use that old clunker to help the business. Each of us kids were given our own typewriter when we started to college, much better typewriters than the family business had! I bought a Cyrillic typewriter to use for making up tests for the classes I taught in grad school. Someone gave me a German keyboard typewriter (with umlauts and so on) for Christmas one year. They all were given away or disposed of when I got a decent printer and software for my computer.
7. What was the first computer you owned?
A Radio Shack Color Computer. It was in a crappy box with crappy keyboard (which I replaced). But it was much more powerful than the Apple IIs and it's operating system was the basis of MSDOS for PCs, in other words, the Windows every personal computer, but Apples use today.
8. What age were you when you first got email?
I blush to admit in my 50s.
9. What age were you when you first encountered the internet? Was it around when you were a kid?
No. Computers, I mean room-sized computers, barely existed when I was a kid. The Internet began when my nephews were in college, I didn't see it till my brother had it on his home computer sometime in my 40s.
10. What age were you when Facebook, Twitter, and Dreamwidth, and Livejournal started?
50s
11. What was your first cell phone? How old were you when you got it? Do you even own one?
Nope, don't need or own one.
12. Have you ever owned a smartphone? How old?
Nope
13. What was the first printer like and the paper that you used when you got your very first computer? Could it print photos -- the first printer you worked on or owned?
It was a thermal printer with special paper. (Do you 'kids' remember those? You'd get a receipt from a store and within a few months it would fade and turn brown.) Like dot matrix and even the gigantic professional line printers (every college had one) of the day it could only print characters.
14. When you were in college, freshman and sophomore years, did you type on a computer or type-writer?
Typewriter. There was no such thing as a personal computer till I was in grad school and you had to put those together yourself. I had no time for such things, but my older brother built one as I was finishing grad school. Word Processing, as a typewriter replacement, only became widely popular when I was in my 30s. I can remember my grad school department secretary proudly informing us graduates that she was instructing the new grad students on how to use the system the department had just bought.
15. What age were you when streaming came out? You can pick decade - aka 20s, 30s, teens...
I have no idea. It was pretty much a child of fast Internet.
16. What age were you when you got your first MP3 Player? Do you even own one?
Nope.
17. Did you own a record player, cassette player, CD player or MP3 player as a kid or teen?
My family owned a record player as long as I can remember. When I was in high school, I think I was the only one who used it.
18. At what age did you start blogging on the internet?
50s
19. E-book reader -- when did these come out? What age?
I don't remember, but I had them in a sci-fi story I wrote in the 1980s before they existed.
20. How do you listen to music? On what devices? And what devices did you use growing up and in college?
I still listen mostly on FM Radio, like I did in high school, and mostly in the car. I have CD's, but rarely listen to music at home. I don't download music.
shadowkat1. Did you have a cell phone prior to your thirties? Did they exist?
No. And no they didn't exist. Mobile phones existed when I was a kid, but the equipment for them took up a good bit of the trunk of a car.
2. Did you have cable when you were a little kid? When did you first get cable?
No. It didn't exist, either. As far as I know it began when I was in grade school as a way for isolated communities and those living in the mountains to get TV service at all. I still don't have cable or satellite.
3. Do you know what 8-track tapes are and did you ever own an 8-track tape player?
Yes, I knew very well when they were popular. They were a big fad among kids five or six years younger than me. The quality of the sound was crap, and system was designed so poorly the tapes frequently got destroyed. Really only suitable for teens and others whose favorite music changed very frequently. No I never owned one.
4. Did you own cassette tapes and walkman or tape player in high school and college?
Again they didn't exist, then. In college I owned a reel-to-reel tape machine for music, and used it through my roommate's hi-fi (i. e. record player & fancy FM radio). Certainly not portable! I have owned cassette tapes and players.
5. When did you get your first DVD player?
I don't really know, but it came in a computer. I bought a TV with a built-in DVD player with the big switch to HDTV.
6. Did you learn how to type on a typewriter? Did you own a typewriter growing up?
Yes, I learned to type on a typewriter in junior high school. My family owned a typewriter for the family business, but I wasn't supposed to play with it. Once I learned how to type, I had to use that old clunker to help the business. Each of us kids were given our own typewriter when we started to college, much better typewriters than the family business had! I bought a Cyrillic typewriter to use for making up tests for the classes I taught in grad school. Someone gave me a German keyboard typewriter (with umlauts and so on) for Christmas one year. They all were given away or disposed of when I got a decent printer and software for my computer.
7. What was the first computer you owned?
A Radio Shack Color Computer. It was in a crappy box with crappy keyboard (which I replaced). But it was much more powerful than the Apple IIs and it's operating system was the basis of MSDOS for PCs, in other words, the Windows every personal computer, but Apples use today.
8. What age were you when you first got email?
I blush to admit in my 50s.
9. What age were you when you first encountered the internet? Was it around when you were a kid?
No. Computers, I mean room-sized computers, barely existed when I was a kid. The Internet began when my nephews were in college, I didn't see it till my brother had it on his home computer sometime in my 40s.
10. What age were you when Facebook, Twitter, and Dreamwidth, and Livejournal started?
50s
11. What was your first cell phone? How old were you when you got it? Do you even own one?
Nope, don't need or own one.
12. Have you ever owned a smartphone? How old?
Nope
13. What was the first printer like and the paper that you used when you got your very first computer? Could it print photos -- the first printer you worked on or owned?
It was a thermal printer with special paper. (Do you 'kids' remember those? You'd get a receipt from a store and within a few months it would fade and turn brown.) Like dot matrix and even the gigantic professional line printers (every college had one) of the day it could only print characters.
14. When you were in college, freshman and sophomore years, did you type on a computer or type-writer?
Typewriter. There was no such thing as a personal computer till I was in grad school and you had to put those together yourself. I had no time for such things, but my older brother built one as I was finishing grad school. Word Processing, as a typewriter replacement, only became widely popular when I was in my 30s. I can remember my grad school department secretary proudly informing us graduates that she was instructing the new grad students on how to use the system the department had just bought.
15. What age were you when streaming came out? You can pick decade - aka 20s, 30s, teens...
I have no idea. It was pretty much a child of fast Internet.
16. What age were you when you got your first MP3 Player? Do you even own one?
Nope.
17. Did you own a record player, cassette player, CD player or MP3 player as a kid or teen?
My family owned a record player as long as I can remember. When I was in high school, I think I was the only one who used it.
18. At what age did you start blogging on the internet?
50s
19. E-book reader -- when did these come out? What age?
I don't remember, but I had them in a sci-fi story I wrote in the 1980s before they existed.
20. How do you listen to music? On what devices? And what devices did you use growing up and in college?
I still listen mostly on FM Radio, like I did in high school, and mostly in the car. I have CD's, but rarely listen to music at home. I don't download music.