I’m you, and I’m writing to you from the future (I can’t remember the last time I actually sit and handwrote a letter to communicate with someone…). I’m sure I’m breaking some rules of time travel to send this to you, so let’s just keep what I tell you here between us. If I’ve timed my letter just right, Mom and Dad just bought our family a computer, and you’re having the time of your life creating stories and pictures in the word processor – and then printing it out on paper like this.
Soon, computers will allow people to talk to one another in new ways and share information through the Internet. It will change how you learn, what you learn, who learns with you, and when you learn. How? Let’s see.
You’re going to learn more about people you already know, sending messages back and forth online. You’ll have online conversations with people you NEVER would speak to in the hallways of your high school (Frank, I’m looking at you), and you become more sensitive to others through what they reveal about themselves in this new, vulnerable space. You’ll use messaging like this when you have a trans-Atlantic relationship in college (spoiler alert: it’s a happy ending).
You’ll belong to groups that exist online, and people you’ve never met before in person are going to challenge you with new perspectives. These online communities will give you new ideas, which you are constantly filing away, not in a physical filing cabinet, but in cloud-based programs like Evernote and Dropbox that you can check on the fly. Through social media, you’ll connect with other music teachers around the world who are committed to antiracist practices in their classrooms. The ideas they share with you make you a more compassionate, more ethical, more engaged adult.
You’ll also use the Internet for the many questions you—and your two kids—have each day. You’ll Google things such as “what is the best curriculum for homeschooling during a pandemic” and get instant answers (yes, I said pandemic). You consult the Internet for answers to health questions, for recommendations on moving trucks, for how you know when meat has spoiled, for news about the world. You can do it pretty much any time of the day. And the funny thing is that this act of going online for answers has become so integrated in your daily life that it won’t even be something you think about.
I know you are hungry to experience everything the world and this life has to offer. The Internet is going to make it possible for you to learn languages on your own in order to travel. You’ll live in one state while working for a non-profit arts organization in another, learning new professional skills and how to work as a virtual team. You’ll join online fitness communities and learn things like barre and yoga. You’re even going to teach yourself how to play the ukulele, using resources you find online!
I know I make it sound like the Internet is going to solve all your future problems. It won’t. But it will impact your personal, professional, spiritual, and social life. So enjoy that computer now, and practice your keyboarding skills. You’re going to need them (except for when touchscreens are invented, and there’s also Siri…I’ve said too much).
Yours,
Robin