January 21: Everything's Gone Digital

Technology is running wild these days! You have iPods, Kindles, Blackberries; not to mention the online craze starring Twitter, Facebook, MySpace...the list goes on. It's getting to where we don't even need to leave our homes to shop, network, bank or hang out with friends and family (you can even see each other via computer now using free services such as Skype!). The day they come up with digital food that truly satisfies your hunger is the day I pull a La-Z-Boy recliner up to the desktop and park myself there permanently - I jest, of course. I'm not against technology, it just seems that human relations, and people in general, are never going to overcome ignorance, hate and fear of each other unless we actually interact face-to-face. But, that's just my theory. Anyway, on January 21, our household stepped one foot further into the technology chasm when I assembled and set-up the digital video frame that I received for Christmas as part of our variation of the White Elephant Gift Exchange with my in-laws. This was to be my first experience with such a gadget. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the function of a digital video frame, this might help. The particular frame I received is very cool, as it holds up to 10 pictures in internal memory and offers several ways to display and transition photos as part of a running slide show. I've always been more traditional about photo display, trying to maintain some order using photo albums, and continually switching out old photographs for more current ones (or at least trying to do this on a regular basis). But, I have to say the appeal of being able to complete that same process simply by moving new pictures directly from my camera into a thumb drive and on to this picture frame seems ingenious, not to mention time-saving. Plus, with the slide show feature, we always have a new photo displaying at any given time! Will I now go out and replace all of our "manual" photo frames with digital versions? Likely not. But, I will confess, for a desktop, it's a unique alternative. And, besides, it makes a great conversation piece that will only increase the human interaction in this household.