I didn't grow up with computers. I didn't even take typing in high school - that was for people who wanted to be secretaries! My nursing school papers were done longhand.
The first home computers were so expensive that I didn't even look at them. (In the early 80s, $2,000 was a lot of money!) I clearly remember the first time a friend brought over his "Home PC". He hooked it up to our TV, as the TV screen then became the monitor. He showed me this astounding new feature. He could type a paragraph, and then go back and change a sentence WITHOUT RETYPING THE WHOLE PARAGRAPH! He said it was called "word processing". I was most impressed!
Fast forward: I now have a PC, a Notebook, and a cell phone. It's a somewhat smart phone. At least I can text without using the numbers to select letters.
I took a typing class at the university. Oops, I mean, I took a keyboarding class. I also took a computer class for beginners, and I learned a lot.
I'm fairly efficient at using the PC to do research, and to access my email and Facebook. I enjoy Facebook, although I'm told now that it is old-fashioned.
No, I haven't tried Twitter. Should I?
Even allnurses is new to me; the idea that I can go online and talk to nurses I don't even know. So strange. Yeah, I can do that on Facebook, too, but there I'm talking to my friends - to people that I already know - with strangers listening in. This is different.
In around 1997 my daughter came home from school so excited, " Mom Mr. Thompson has this thing like a computer except when you put a piece of paper in it and when you type it goes right on the piece of paper, you don't have to wait for it to print!" .........(typewriter)
She also said " he has a thing that plays music on these really big CDs!"........(turntable)
My husband surprised me with a Palm Pilot early on. Initially I wasn't sure I needed it until I could plug in working every other weekend forever and easily see what weekends I was working 6 months or more down the road. No more counting weekends on a paper calendar!
My mom (who spent her whole life as a secretary) famously told me NOT to learn to type, because if I did, I'd never get a job doing anything else.
I am the fastest two-finger, hunt-and-peck typist on the planet.
Both my parents were touch typists-Mom was a secretary/bookkeeper, Dad was a radio operator during Korea, and one of his duties was to intercept and transcribe enemy communications.
They had mad typing skills. My daughter was a born touch typist. She had a keyboard class in 4th grade and was doing 100 wpm with 99% accuracy after about a month. It's almost annoying to listen to her when she's on her computer sometimes. She goes so fast, and instantly knows when she mis-keys, because she's looking at the screen, not her hands.
I finally took a class about 15 years ago. I'm a touch typist, but nowhere near their league.
My parents got my sister a TRS-80 computer. I'm pretty sure I did more than she did with it, even though I was about 7 and couldn't type. We had the tape player-recorder, that was a wonderful thing...you could type a program, RUN it, then save it, turn the computer OFF, then come back the next day and do it again! It was amazing. lol
I had a Palm pilot, that is how I made it through nursing school. Everyone looked to me for answers, even the instructors would ask me things about meds and such, cause I had it with me, all the time.
My colleague who worked in business improvement before transitioning to health improvement is an amazing touch typist. Because of this she is often lumbered with minute taking in meetings. I am somewhere between hunt and peck and touch typing.
Our health service like most in Australia is a paper based medical record so our computers are limited and run on XP. we got hit by the Q bot virus that is going around the health services of the world.
Our health service like most in Australia is a paper based medical record so our computers are limited and run on XP. we got hit by the Q bot virus that is going around the health services of the world.
It is a keystroke virus that captures passwords etc. Usually undectable in modern operating system but my hospital runs on XP and this virus renders the computers un usable. A lot of our systems run on XP such as pathology radiology theatre (OR) booking systems.
Twitter is a fantastic source of comedy so I suggest you go for it. What was the statistic? Something like 60% of people who use Twitter never tweet so don't feel obliged that in order to participate tweeting is mandatory. There is some funny stuff on Twitter and it is delightful.
I joined Twitter in 2008 on a whim . . . I want to know where you go on Twitter because I've only made 9 posts and there is nothing funny or delightful that I can see.
I grew up in the 60's and 70's. In college (the first time) I learned keypunching - I was pretty good at it. Had a nerd boyfriend who ended up working for HP.
My oldest son bought me a Palm Pilot when they first came out - I never really used it. I think it is still in a drawer around here somewhere.
I've never heard typing called "touch typing" . . . I learned to type in high school and we put our fingers on home base and learned to type without ever looking at the keyboard. That was typing . . .
Snapchat was designed so kids could sent narty photos to each other without getting caught.
I joined Twitter in 2008 on a whim . . . I want to know where you go on Twitter because I've only made 9 posts and there is nothing funny or delightful that I can see.
Snapchat was designed so kids could sent narty photos to each other without getting caught.
As soon as I started following comedians that I liked, all the funny started happening. :)
And, Snapchat, yeah that's what I thought. I still don't understand how to use it. I feel so old.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Computers were newfangled in the 80s; nearly everyone has one (and uses it) now -- even my octogenarian parents. Dad took to email immediately, and developed friendships with folks all over the world.
I grew up with computers . . . Sort of. My mother's office had an IBM that was the size of a couple of patient rooms. The door had to be kept closed and the air conditioner running to keep that thing going. I have as much processing power in my iPhone now. In fact, I have as much processing power as the computers that sent men to the moon. Now that's a thought!
I bought my first PC for graduate school in 1987 -- I had a Leading Edge. It cost nearly $2000 and was probably as expensive as the tuition for my entire graduate degree! I had one of the first modems the telephone company had ever dealt with . . . I remember once after spending HOURS constructing a file for SPSS, some aluminum siding salesman called while I was trying to transmit the data to the VAX computers at school -- knocked me off the internet and ruined my file. I was livid!
I had an early Palm Pilot and loved the thing, and I remember when those iPods with the big screen color display first came out . . . I wanted them to make them into PDAs so I could buy one. Apple was way ahead of me on that one . . IPhones came out later.
I have an iPhone, 2 iPads, 2 laptops and a desktop that we just gave away. I My husband has the iPhone, 2 iPads and one laptop. We have far more electronics that we have any need for, and more than we can use at one time. New fangled? No way. It's been nearly 30 years since I had my first PC. Now Snapchat and Twitter -- that's newfangled. I've been on Twitter a couple of times, but I've noticed that if it's worth reading, someone posts it to FaceBook and I can read it there.
.thumb.gif.9c97ffa9443a5f22ff38e1eac832292c.gif){kind=avatar}
RNKPCE
1,170 Posts
In around 1997 my daughter came home from school so excited, " Mom Mr. Thompson has this thing like a computer except when you put a piece of paper in it and when you type it goes right on the piece of paper, you don't have to wait for it to print!" .........(typewriter)
She also said " he has a thing that plays music on these really big CDs!"........(turntable)
Out of the mouth of babes!