via Daily Prompt: Zip

When I think back to how it was when I went to school, even high school and college computers were not a required part of our school supplies.  How did we do it?  Imagine having to write long papers by hand using a pen.  Then later using a typewriter with a ribbon that needed to be changed and no memory back up if the dog ate your assignment.  How did we make it through?

Well, it seems to me that long before computers and the verbiage it brought to the English language we were using zip files.  We would learn lessons and file the info in our installed computers, our brains.  We would input so much that there was a worry we would run out of room causing a melt down of the installed hard drive.  So, the invention of the zip file actually happened long before computers.  

Within our brains are many, many zip files with names attached to them.  When we need to recall one thing or another, we simply push the key in our brains to open that particular zip file.  And voila, information right at our fingertips.

Today our children have access to computers not only at home but in school.  I can remember my two younger children using a computer daily in elementary school and my grandchildren began using them in pre-school.  No wonder most of them are teaching us how to use computers and how to fix the problems that we have with them.

Computers are a great advantage for study I won’t deny it, but there is a disadvantage to computers too.  I see that the wonderful experience of spending time in a library is in decline.  You can access just about any information on just about any subject through the use of computers.  What you can’t get is the feel of paper that has helped hundreds of people look up that same interesting fact, or the smell of old books, or the beautiful art that is etched onto the pages.  The silent sharing of a table in the stacks as you comb through volumes of written words.  The joy of being around so much knowledge.

Truth be told I would rather be without my dishwasher than my computer.  I find it makes my life easier in many ways.  It connects me to people I may never have had the opportunity to connect with and it gives me an outlet to stretch my abilities.