My first computer is the one I own now. I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop that I purchased in June of 2005. I was very excited to be able to have a computer at home for the first time, not just at school. At the time I purchased it, it was an incredible laptop and now it seems to crawl along. But, it does what I need it to do. I realize it may be hard to believe I never owned a computer before 2005, but it is true. When I was in college, it wasn't as customary as it is now for each student to have their own computer. When I first bought my laptop I primarily used it for surfing the Internet, downloading music, paying bills, and managing pictures. I still use it for those things, but now I use it for school purposes also.
I have dealt with two crashes with this laptop. However, having access to computer geniuses has proved to be very helpful. I had a complete crash last December and my nephew was able to recover pictures from the hard drive, as they were the most valuable items stored there. He cleaned up the hard drive and reformatted my computer for me. That experience was painful, but eye-opening.
My first experiences with computers were in elementary school. We had about eight Apple 2Es and 2 Apples that had color monitors at the private elementary school I attended. Every other Friday we went to the computer lab and played games that were stored on the 5 1/4 floppy disks. We had some of the classic 80s games, Frogger and Oregon Trail, and we also had educational games. In 5th grade we were introduced to Paws, the software that tried to teach us how to type. I will never forget my experiences with those wonderful Apple computers that introduced me to technology.
In school I deal with Dell computers daily, as I teach in a computer lab. I have learned some basic troubleshooting throughout the years and also have learned about installing different software programs that we have at school.
I appreciate computers and the conveniences they provide me. I think it is incredible how they have evolved and how many different things they can do now compared to when I was a child. When I was a child, in my head, all computers were used for were to play games. Now I use them for so much more. It provides me a place to do homework, research lessons, social network, update my bank accounts, and so much more. I can't wait to see where computers will take us next.
