Computers Will Change You

Computers Will Change You

Unless you’re using one all the time, people’s reliance on computers might seem baffling at first. This is especially true for people that grew up without using computers.  Of course, it’s not like that for anyone that actually uses a computer. What you might not realise is that computers will change you.

Computers are a type of technology that has drastically changed our lives in many ways. You might use your computer for shopping, you might check your finances with it, or you might have even started up your own business. Computers are a way to level the playing field for everyone. If you have a passion for something and the motivation to chase it, you can use your computer to achieve some wonderful things in life.

With that said, there are many small ways that computers can change our lives. These are things that many of us don’t really notice. In this post, I’ll look at some of the small unexpected life changes that you’ll experience once you get used to computers.

Computers Will Change You: You’ll Become to Go-to Tech Support Specialist in the Family

This is perhaps one of the more annoying consequences of actually learning how to use computers proficiently. Once you help someone in the family, your deeds will spread like wildfire. You’ll eventually get family members asking you to do everything from fixing simple computer issues to helping them install a program. Regardless of how knowledgeable you are about computers, even showing a bit of expertise and understanding will label you the tech support specialist in your family. Be warned! In my house, the 14-year-old recently showed he’d overtaken me in tech knowledge and is now the official go-to.

Computers Will Change You: You’ll Find That Typing is More Convenient Than Writing

Before you start using a computer, you’ll probably think that writing is the fastest way to get a message across. Once you start learning how to type practice and write large documents, you’ll realize that typing is perhaps the fastest way to get a message across outside of using voice messages. As a result, you’ll probably spend far more time mastering the use of a keyboard than making sure your handwriting is neat. You might even start sending Christmas cards with printed messages instead of writing long messages on cards.

This is just a small thing that you might have noticed, but it does drastically change the way that we engage with other businesses or study. A lot of people will switch from taking physical notes to just typing notes on a computer. You might also get used to conveniences such as automatic grammar corrections and spell checking. These things don’t work when you write a message with pen and paper, so you might get a little sloppy with your handwriting. I will hold my hand up to this. I rarely handwrite these days, finding it quicker and easier online.

You’ll rely on computers to remember things for you

One of the great things about computers is that you can use them to store information instead of committing them to memory. For example, something that a lot of people used to do in the past was remember phone numbers by committing them to memory. They might have also written them down on a sheet of paper or a phonebook. Nowadays, you can just write them into your smartphone. You can do this with a lot of information now. For example, you can keep a schedule and make it remind you automatically when important events are coming up. Similarly, you could also write down important notes that you need to remember for work.

However, this also means that you’ll be a lot more reliant on computers for everyday things. Some people might even be lost without their phone or a laptop which can feel a bit strange at first. You’ll eventually get used to having your devices with you at all times and making sure they’re fully charged so you always have the information available to you. But at first, it can feel a bit daunting relying so much on computers to remember information for you. Eventually, it does make it a little more comfortable since you can commit more of your time and brainpower to more productive things and leaving tasks such as memorising information to your computer or smartphone instead. Again, I’m the first once to hold my hand up and say that I have a memory like a sieve these days and rely on Google calendar and similar.

You’ll Soon Realise all the Possibilities Open to You

A computer is essentially a window to the rest of the world. Once you get a computer and learn how to use the internet, you’ll realise that you have so many opportunities to do things that you never thought were possible. For example, you could network with people from all across the world to discuss your passions and share stories about common interests. You can even choose to start a business by recruiting people from the other side of the earth. Online businesses are massively popular now because they’re easy to start up, they’re inexpensive and they’re incredibly lucrative if you invest time and money into it.

There are countless things you can do once you get used to using computers. It really opens up your life and offers you many unique opportunities that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Whether it’s to further your career or to chase your passions, using computers can make it all the more possible. Getting used to computers can be a challenge especially if you’re not accustomed to technology, but many of the skills are transferable and you’ll start to realise how simple it is to use tech and incorporate it in your daily life.

One important is that it is more important then ever, now we are part of this digital age, is that we remember to connect face to face and person to person from time to time. This is important for our mental health. Enjoy the many benefits that using a computer or other digital device offers but don’t lose sight of the important things that are offline.

 

Coding and Our Children

Coding

The only languages we were taught at school when I was growing up were French and German and if I’m being honest I only really remember hello, goodbye, how many brothers and sisters I have and all the swearwords.

My children however have a whole new world opened up to them and believe it or they are learning the language of the internet, they are learning to code! My eldest son is nine years old and has been using Scratch at school for a couple of years now as part of the school curriculum. He also attends Code Club at the local library once a fortnight where he continues to code (Python soon) and on top of this has started using Command Blocks to “code” in Minecraft.

All of these coding languages, all of these opportunities; we as parents think the fact that all of this is available to him is fantastic. It doesn’t hurt that we are all a bit geeky (in a good way) and enjoy this sort of thing.

Recently Kieran has been asking questions about secondary school (he has 18 months or so of primary school left!). After search the local “big” school for answers to certain questions we came across a news article about the schools coding club, Raspberry Pi. Some code they wrote as part of a competition was selected as a winner and sent up to the International Space Station, the team involved visited Tim Peake himself at a special event in his honour and had the good fortune to meet Professor Brian Cox and Dara O’Briain. To say that he thought this was cool is a huge understatement.

The point I’m trying to make is that our children have this fabulous opportunity to learn to code and if they wish literally go on and shape the internet, our digital devices, how things work and more. That is pretty amazing stuff.

Roy and I are very much behind this aspect of their learn and are keen to support it and help them go as far as they want and as far as they can. Personally I’ll have to do some reading up on coding as I still struggle with HTML but between us, the school, code club and all of the other resources available to them I see a very bright future for the boys and I can help but be excited by that.

Do your children enjoy coding? What do they do (Scratch, Python, Raspberry Pi?). Who knows, maybe some of this knowledge will rub off and this not-so code savvy Mum will be able to manage some basic programming at some point?