Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
No need to imagine
That’s how we grew up!
Saw my first computer
When I was age eleven.
Our famous school computer
They were very rare.
It was so unusual
It made ‘Tomorrow’s World’.
It took a whole science lab
With all its flashing lights
And all it did was work out
Complicated sums.
There were no computers
Growing up at home
What could we have done with them?
Didn’t see the point.
Not that we’d afford one
Expensive piece of kit
They were just for scientists
Not the likes of us.
You wanted to find out stuff?
You’d have to turn to books.
Huge encyclopaedias
Took pride upon our shelves.
There was no social media
Were no mobile phones
Only very few of us
Had a phone at home.
We’d communicate by letter
Or simply face to face
You’d have to make arrangements
Re when and where to meet.
There’s no such thing as GPS
You had to use a map
Or rely on friends’ directions
And hope you got it right.
The world has got much smaller
Communication links
Those days if you were abroad
A letter could take weeks.
There weren’t that many channels
Assuming you’d TV
You’d have to just watch
what was on.
Or maybe read a book.
We’d get news from the papers
Or radio twice a day
Not the constant coverage
That you enjoy today.
But news we could rely on
We knew where it came from.
No one spewing lies or hate
Divisive claims online.
Travel was more difficult
Harder to research
You’d need a travel agent
Too hard to book yourself.
Finding shops and restaurants
Was pretty hit and miss
You’d have to go in person
And simply take a chance.
There is no Tripadvisor
You can’t look up reviews
There is no buying things online
You trek around the shops.
I worked in a library
The catalogue on cards.
Each book had a card in it
They’d all be filed by hand.
No easy way to look things up
We’d thumb through books or cards
You’d come in to a library
And there’d not be one PC.
It’s hard now to imagine
To think of where we were.
Computers have their downsides
But I think it’s better now.
Andrew Green's Poems 