Short Assignment 4: Evocative Objects

Throughout my life, many products have come and gone. Some things seem to always be present while others fade away as soon as their usefulness is gone. One product that has been present throughout my life is the computer. Ever since I could remember, my family has had a computer in the house. When I lived in Taiwan as a child, it resided in the corner of the living room. Just thinking about it as an advanced technology now is humorous because it was literally a gray box on top of another gray box and contained no aesthetic appeal.

As I got older, I began to actually interact with the computer. It was no longer just a gray box to me but became something I spent time and learn with. At this point in my life, most of my interactions with the computer were through educational games-Reader Rabbit, Dr. Brain, and electronic, interactive versions of children’s books including the Aesop Tales, the Berenstain Bears, and the Magic School Bus. Although these games were meant to make children learn, and even though children are notorious for disliking education, I truly enjoyed them.

I played and replayed the same games over and over again. I learned the same things over and over again. This was something that was fun for me. As we get older, we seem to get tired of repetition, but as a child, we do the things we enjoy and we keep doing it. When I think back on those days, it makes absolute sense why I am where I am today and that this interaction was crucial in the development of my interests. Although I did go outside a lot to play, it is not the bikes I rode nor the sports I played which stand out, but the things I learned while playing on the computer. The Magic School Bus games are especially clear in my memory because of the amount I played them.

The next stage of my life stripped the computer of its educational purpose to where it became solely a social tool. I was in middle school when I was first introduced to the ability to chat with friends. My mom and sister had moved to Taiwan during this time of my life so the computer became a big part of my every day, especially since my dad was at work for most of the day. Every day after school, I would sign into my America Online account and listen to the screeching sounds of dial-up as the computer slowly struggled to complete its task. I no longer used the computer to play educational games. Instead, I would spend hours chatting with my friends. Although there may not be a complete correlation, the side of me which loved to learn also began to diminish during this time. As my desire for a social life became more prominent, my grades in school began to slip.

As I progressed through high school, the computer’s role began to evolve again. The line between the social and educational aspects began to blur. The computer was a way for me to keep in contact with friends and to even make new friends, but also was also there for me to learn. School projects required me to use the computer to do research, but I did not find enjoyment in it. As I got older, the educational aspect of the computer moved from being fun to being a chore. Learning through the computer became something I had to do instead of something I wanted to do. I did not find pleasure in learning like I did as a child and I thought of high school as something that was uninteresting. My relationship with my computer became bittersweet because it encompassed two aspects of my life: something I enjoyed and something did not enjoy. It was difficult because the part I enjoyed was completely by choice while the other was something that is mandatory of me.

Sometime between my later high school years and the beginning of my college years, learning became something I enjoyed again. I discovered the computer as an entertaining educational tool beyond the games that I played as a kid. While educational games are much harder to find for someone of my age, I do not need “fun” to be motivated to learn anymore. Because of the vastness of the internet, I was able to learn about, not only what I had to, but what I wanted to learn, too. The computer is something that is still a part of my everyday life. In fact, it is more a part of my everyday life that it ever was before. It is what I use to socialize, work, and research. It has gotten to the point where if I did not have a computer, I would almost be completely lost. I am almost completely dependent on it to do work and even to physically get from one place to another. started as a gray box in the corner of the living room became something so intertwined in my life that I could not get away from it even if I wanted to.

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