Baby boomers and Gen Xers are quite familiar with the way technology used to be back in the day. It wasn’t very long ago that board games were the big thrill, television sets took minutes to warm up before displaying a picture, answering machines were the latest thrill, and computers had minimal use and simple text screen graphics. However, Ellen DeGeneres uses her skills as a comedienne to let children realize what an advantage they have to be immersed in high tech from an early age.
What Ellen did was to speak to some children and present them with the technology she once used. The first item was a first generation cell phone. It was large and bulky. One child properly identified it as an old phone that was used “back in the day”. Next, she introduced two children to a typewriter. She had them looking for the power switch on it. The later fumbled their way trying to type message onto paper.
Lastly, she displayed an old answering machine with a microphone attached to it. One child thought it was a radio with a microphone. Ellen explained what purpose the recorder served and tried to teach a young girl to record a greeting messages. At every turn, Ellen made a “beep” sound to cut her off.
It was a throwback to the first models of message recorders that left very little time for a person to record a greeting. Watch Ellen amuse the children with her stroll down the “old technology” memory lane. It will certainly invoke fond memories of old technology for anyone over age 40 and show you just how much has change in a short period of time.