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Slashdot Asks: Did You Have a Shared Family Computer Growing Up? (theverge.com)
theodp writes: "Long before phone addiction panic gripped the masses and before screen time became a facet of our wellness and digital detoxes," begins Katie Reid's article, How the Shared Family Computer Protected Us from Our Worst Selves, "there was one good and wise piece of technology that served our families. Maybe it was in the family room or in the kitchen. It could have been a Mac or PC. Chances are it had a totally mesmerizing screensaver. It was the shared family desktop." She continues: "I can still see the Dell I grew up using as clear as day, like I just connected to NetZero yesterday. It sat in my eldest sister's room, which was just off the kitchen. Depending on when you peeked into the room, you might have found my dad playing Solitaire, my sister downloading songs from Napster, or me playing Wheel of Fortune or writing my name in Microsoft Paint. The rules for using the family desktop were pretty simple: homework trumped games; Dad trumped all. Like the other shared equipment in our house, its usefulness was focused and direct: it was a tool that the whole family used, and it was our portal to the wild, weird, wonderful internet. As such, we adored it." Did you have a shared family computer growing up? Can you relate to any of the experiences Katie mentioned in her article? Please share your thoughts in a comment below.
We didn't have a shared family computer, but we had a rock and some sticks. After hauling water 50 miles from the nearest creek, eating our small meal of dandelion roots, and sweeping the dirt floor to clean up, we would then sit cross-legged in a circle and roll our family rock back and forth with the sticks for a few hours on end. Such fond memories. Those were the good ol' days.
I still remember our first computer. Core Duo with DSL. Only 2GB of RAM. Didn't even have a SSD. Pathetic.
Remembered the shared family TV? I barely can.
I can remember that I was the remote control.
"The picture looks great, now just hold it there and don't move for an hour!"