More retrospecting
More retrospecting
—a commentary to a post in The Joys of Teaching Literature, on "forgetting the pre-Internet past" and on our media metamorphosis:
I love this kind of post. A small comparative here with my own experience:
- 1st experience with computers in the early 80s... you had to load the system to the computer from a cassette tape (yes that's what it says).
- Began my MA dissertation ("tesina") by hand, and then typed it out first in a conventional typewriter for the provisional version, an electronic typewriter for the final one.
- Considered buying an IBM (the year was 1985) for my dissertation, decided on an electronic typewriter instead (you had to add code in order to write italics and so on at that stage...). But quickly switched to a Mac without a hard drive or system.
- First experiences with hypertext & links & networked computers in the USA late 80s.
- My first electronic publication in the Internet, in 1995. Sounds like prehistory now.Last century I advocated that our academic society (AEDEAN) should publish the proceedings online, and I guess people thought I was weak in the head. Needless to say, the board disregarded the suggestion.
- I had to wrestle e-mail and an Internet connection from the University in the early 90s, as they were only bothering to give that service to the science departments. Back then people used the phone, and they still use it. Those were the days, and these are the days too, all the time.
