What's a Floppy Disk?
Well, the spring semester is now in full swing, and I'm teaching an advanced course with 11 students. The students will be giving powerpoint presentations on various topics in the field of inorganic chemistry throughout the semester. In order to make things a little easier for the students, I suggested they bring their powerpoint presentations on a flash drive and load them onto my laptop on the days they are presenting their talks. (Believe me technology is only wonderful when it works!)
To my surprise, one of my students stated that "nobody uses portable flash drives to store their stuff." I replied that when I was in graduate school, I saved my dissertation on three or four floppy disks." A second student replied, "What's a floppy disk?" I found his response quite amusing and laughed and told him to shut up. All the students found this to be quite humorous.
However, at that moment, I realized I was OLD to these young people. Have a I turned into my parents already? Quite frankly, I'm old enough to remember an eight-track tape player, but I was too young to own one myself. I don't think of myself as being "old" but "old school." And, yes I have a turntable with several albums including the sound track to the movie "Purple Rain" with a pull out poster of Prince. Heck, I remember using a rotary-dial phone! (Ok, I am showing my age here.)
But, technology has really changed everything today. We didn't have computers, the internet, cell phones, or iPods when I was a kid, but young people today have essentially grown up with this kind of technology. I refuse to think of myself as being old. One of my good friends recently told me that I am a "throw back," which is a good way to describe myself. I enjoy listening to R&B music from the 1970s and 1980s, but I also like some of the R&B music today. Well, all I can say is that I am a proud member of Generation X.
To my surprise, one of my students stated that "nobody uses portable flash drives to store their stuff." I replied that when I was in graduate school, I saved my dissertation on three or four floppy disks." A second student replied, "What's a floppy disk?" I found his response quite amusing and laughed and told him to shut up. All the students found this to be quite humorous.
However, at that moment, I realized I was OLD to these young people. Have a I turned into my parents already? Quite frankly, I'm old enough to remember an eight-track tape player, but I was too young to own one myself. I don't think of myself as being "old" but "old school." And, yes I have a turntable with several albums including the sound track to the movie "Purple Rain" with a pull out poster of Prince. Heck, I remember using a rotary-dial phone! (Ok, I am showing my age here.)
But, technology has really changed everything today. We didn't have computers, the internet, cell phones, or iPods when I was a kid, but young people today have essentially grown up with this kind of technology. I refuse to think of myself as being old. One of my good friends recently told me that I am a "throw back," which is a good way to describe myself. I enjoy listening to R&B music from the 1970s and 1980s, but I also like some of the R&B music today. Well, all I can say is that I am a proud member of Generation X.
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