My Kindle & Technology with the Grandkids






Saturday we attended Jack's (our 6 year old grandson) first soccer game of the spring.  He was very enthusiastic and seemed to thoroughly enjoy every aspect of the game.

While sitting and watching, the 3 other grandchildren played with our technology-the cell phones and my Kindle.  They did not need any instructions but seem to use it very intuitively.  

Last year I purchased an electronic book reader called the Kindle from Amazon.com.  But to say it is just a book reader is like saying the computer is just a typewriter.  I have found many great features of the Kindle that aren't really showcased by Amazon.  This includes web access.  I use the Kindle for checking email and Facebook while we are traveling.  Amazon does not charge for this service because they use it for downloading your purchases.  Which, by the way, is my favorite feature of the Kindle.  I can pick a book and make one click and it is downloaded immediately.  No waiting.  Of course there is the $10 charge but that is for any book even best-sellers which cost much more in the store.  This makes the Kindle a dangerous piece of technology.  I can hear about a book and within minutes, I can have it in my possession.

Many of my friends have told me that they prefer to read actual books because that it part of the joy of reading.   But looking at my grandkids, I can tell that the next generation of readers will be very much at home reading from a screen and may even find the old method of going to a store or a library to get a book will be too slow and old fashioned for them.

  I may even be feeling that now too.  I'm considering canceling our Grand Rapids Press subscription for that very reason.  Lately I've been getting the paper only to realize that I have heard or read almost all the stories earlier in the day-usually on-line.  It may be that printed newspapers are becoming outdated because information is now available immediately throughout the day.

What do you think?  

Comments

  1. auntie skiApril 22, 2009 at 4:16 AM

    Love that happy smile while Kindle reading.... and look at how easy it is to see the screen even from the camera lense, and in bright light!
    So what were the kids doing with the cell phones? Texting each other? I know they aren't PDA phones, so.... ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. BrendaApril 22, 2009 at 4:23 AM

    The kids were calling each other but Madelynn called her father who was out on the field coaching the team. I saw him pull out the phone and check who it was from and then noticed was Madelynn giggling.

    When we got home, Tom noticed he had a message and it was from Madelynn during the game. So they just were fooling around.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Emma C. Nason Children's Home

Image
Emma C. Nason Home A Children's home in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan When I first met Tom and was telling him about my family, I said that I had 22 sisters and brothers. But I went on to explain that I lived with my parents at a children's home where they were the directors. For our first year there, I lived right in the large bedrooms with the girls-about 10 of them. Then I was given my own bedroom. My parents had an apartment in the building but my sister Susie was the only one who stayed in it with them. The Emma C. Nason Home has a wonderful history in the Soo. Emma C. Nason was a woman who moved to the Soo in the early 1900's from New York. Her goal was to start a home for wayward sailors. I'm sure there were many of them in the Soo during that time. Nason's vision for this home must have changed over time and she actually established a home for unwed mothers on Ridge Street. So when the city leaders started a children's home, they named it the E
Read more

Living on the Ridge

Image
 I was reading this book last week and it got me thinking about …. This quote is from one of my favorite podcasts last week- What Should I Read Next? When I heard that, I realized that I say that frequently.  Right now, I'm studying the growing of oranges.  This is how I got to my current topic of study-growing oranges. So "I was reading this book last week and it got me thinking about how oranges are grown here in Florida."  The book was Oranges by John McPhee.   Found out we live on "The Ridge".  A prime citrus growing area in Florida that runs from Leesburg to Sebring.  We live just north of Sebring.   Oranges are fascinating.  Did you know that ....? Oranges from the top of the tree are sweeter than fruit from the bottom of the tree Oranges are sweeter on the south side of the tree There are sweeter sections within an orange.  The blossom end is sweeter than the other side of the orange. We have an orange grove nearby that sells
Read more

New Home But An Old Table

Image
Tom and I took a big step this fall.  After several years of prayers, searching and dealing with our doubts, we made the move from our family farm to a condo.  This has been on heavy Tom's heart since his cancer diagnosis.  As we went through his treatments, it became clearer to us that we needed to have a home that didn't require  much work and maintenance.   We were helped in our search by our niece, Karey Mulder .  We looked at many condos the past two years.  We never found exactly what we were looking for.  Several places meet some of our dreams but none met them all -until this August when a condo came on the market in Leisure Creek Condominiums.  We knew immediately that this was the home we were looking for. We closed on our new home in late August.  Karey had a local artist make us a picture of our farm that we would be leaving.  She presented it to us at the closing.  It hangs proudly in our condo. Karey giving us a framed picture of the farm
Read more