A meme belleweather
1. Did you have a cell phone prior to your thirties? Did they exist?
The existed for decades before they became popular, so yes they existed. But, I was in my 30’s when I got my first one.
2. Did you have cable when you were a little kid? When did you first get cable?
Didn’t have it growing up. Got it in college when our apartment had a cable that came in the window. We plugged it in and had cable. A few years later the cable company sent us a letter saying "hey, you should pay for that". So, we did. But, not for the back years.
3. Do you know what 8-track tapes are and did you ever own an 8-track tape player?
I didn’t have one, but my friends did. I remember driving around with my friend Ken in high school listening to his.
4. Did you own cassette tapes and walkman or tape player in high school and college?
I didn’t even see one until half way through college. I got one eventually, but don’t remember exactly when.
5. When did you get your first DVD player?
I don’t remember exactly when. It’s been a while.
6. Did you learn how to type on a typewriter? Did you own a typewriter growing up?
Yeah, I took typing in summer school. It was that or summer camp and I hated camp.
So, I spent my summers sweating over an electric typewriter in class. I owned a manual at home. I got an electric in college.
7. What was the first computer you owned?
At Christmas 1985 I bought a Mac 512. They had just come out and were expensive, but cool.
8. What age were you when you first got email?
I started college at 17 and you could do email to other students at the college. After a month the computer manger cancelled my account and called me to his office.
"Mr Hunt, computers are not for email!" he told me. "They are for serious work! If you agree not to use it for foolish things like email, I will give you your account back."
9. What age were you when you first encountered the internet? Was it around when you were a kid?
Like cellphones, it was around long before most people knew about it. So, maybe it was around when I was a kid.
I didn’t really encounter it until my late 20’s.
10. What age were you when Facebook, Twitter, and Dreamwidth, and Livejournal started?
I’m not really sure when they started. But, I started using them in 2007 or so.
11. What was your first cell phone? How old were you when you got it? Do you even own one?
It was a pretty average phone. I got it when I was 30 as I had a job 55 miles (90km) from home and wanted to be able to tell my wife if traffic would make me late.
12. Have you ever owned a smartphone?
I’ve got an iPhone X right now…
13. What was the first printer like and the paper that you used when you got your very first computer? Could it print photos -- the first printer you worked on or owned?
I had an Apple Stylewriter II that could do regular or track fed paper. It could do color printing, but wasn’t good at photos.
14. When you were in college, freshman and sophomore years, did you type on a computer or type-writer?
I used an electric typewriter until my junior year. At that point my roommate got a computer he let me use. But, I still had to carry my data up to school to print it. The big advantage of his computer was a spell checker. That was just amazing. (Even though all it would do was mark words it didn’t know.)
15. What age were you when streaming came out? You can pick decade - aka 20s, 30s, teens…
I’m not sure when it came out. I didn’t start using it until I was about 50.
16. What age were you when you got your first MP3 Player? Do you even own one?
I got an iPod when I was about 40.
17. Did you own a record player, cassette player, CD player or MP3 player as a kid or teen?
I had a record player until I was in my 30’s or so. I had a cassette player for a lot of that. I didn’t get a CD player until I was about 25 and it took me a bit to convert over.
18. At what age did you start blogging on the internet?
43.
19. E-book reader -- when did these come out? What age?
I don't’ know when they came out. I started using one when I was 46.
20. How do you listen to music? On what devices?
I listen to it mostly off of my iPhone while connected to my car, or off my computer. Sometimes off my iPad, but usually one of the other two.