In my life

I have a close friend who was born the year after man first walked on the moon. This used to make me feel old. Now it just makes me feel lucky.

My mother cooked dinner on a stove or in an oven and it took an hour minimum. My microwave dinner is ready in 6 minutes. Most times this is too long.

As a child our television was black and white and we pulled in one station, Channel 3 out of Barrie, Ontario. I now own a widescreen digital HD TV, which is already dated. It's connected to satellite receiver. I get hundreds of channels. Most of the programs are shit. Each month I give Starchoice $40 for Law and Order repeats. Not that I'm complaining…

In my high school the use of calculators was highly restricted. Now the use of computers is mandated.

In my line of work (radio production) I have gone from recording on reel-to-reel and cartridge tape, to recording on digital cassette tape, to recording on hard disk. I now have more recording and mixing options on the laptop I am using to write this than I used to have in my entire studio at work. I have seen certain digital technologies come and go in the span of 10 years.

The transition from analog to digital is magnificent. Unfortunately with the dawn of the digital age has come a proliferation of idiocy, ie mindless web chats that are little more than a high tech version of "wassup". There's an old saying "everyone on the internet is a dog" – meaning that for all you know the person on the other end could be, well, a dog. Actually a web chat with a dog, a schnauzer perhaps, would be preferable to exchanging "yo, 'sup"s with some 12 year old imbecile guzzling "energy" drinks in his parents basement whilst declaring to a waiting world that he's the baddest mothaf***a on the mothaf**in' web. Hey, guess what asswipe, you're not Snoop Dog – you're not even Deputy Dog. And as long as you're chugging all that "energy" juice, why not get off your ass and do something – otherwise stick to water, it's better for you.

Don't get me wrong, I spend as much time on You Tube and My Space as the next socially inept freak, but come on, IMPRESS ME!!!

When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, his first words were "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind". Imagine if instead he'd told a dick joke. Digital tools are wonderful, but they're just tools. Is there anybody in there?