The document describes the author's experiences with computers from childhood to the present. As a child, the author's first computer was an old Gateway desktop with floppy disks and CDs. They played educational games on it, sparking an interest in computers. Later, the family got a new PC with a flat screen monitor. The author's first online game was World of Warcraft, which expanded their worldview and required learning new communication abbreviations. In high school, the author took programming classes, learning a new "language" of coding. They upgraded their PC's components, gaining hands-on experience. These experiences have led the author to pursue a career as a computer engineer and value computer literacy.

1. My earliest memory of using a computer would be that of when I used to live in Florida. I
had a old Gateway that was in my room on a desk. It was a big old white thing with a box
monitor that was almost like a small TV and a tower that was that was double the size of modern
ones. It could take CD’s and Floppy disk but that was about all it could do. Mind you it wasn’t
running a command prompt so it was pretty good for its day. About the only thing I can
remember myself doing on it was putting in a CD and playing some type of learning game on it.
This was the start of my literacy in computers.
Once we move up here to North Carolina my dad got us a new family PC which is the
one that I still currently have today. It has a CD driver just like the old one did but floppy disk
are no longer used so there isn’t a drive for that. With it he also got the first flat screen monitor
that we had which was a big step up from the big white box that used to take up half of the desk
just to display a computer.
My first experience see what a computer could really do would be play the game World
of Warcraft as this was my first online computer game where I would interact with others I had
no idea what to expect. Starting this game changed my perspective on the world as instead of
just being the people I know and see I was now interacting with people from all over the world in
a massive game where we could all interact together and accomplish things. One of the big
things I noticed once joining this community is that the language was completely different then
what I was used too. Gamer if you aren’t one and or haven’t interacted with some before
abbreviate things a lot. They were probably the first ones to come up with a lot of the
abbreviation that we see today. As online gaming has been around a lot longer than texting has.
Just from my personal experience I was playing this when I was about 10 which was like 2005
and that was before texting became such a big thing like it is now. Some common example that

2. might be better known of gamer abbreviations would be GG, which means good game, WB,
which means welcome back. These are just a few of the new terms that I had to learn to interact
with this new community.
This wasn’t the online thing I had to learn to fit into this online community I had to also
learn how to play the game. As people don’t like to play with other that have no idea what they
are doing. To do this I had to learn how to multitask, type fast, and be able to react fast to
situation that my character might be in. This may sound funny and weird to those who haven’t
played a game serious before but if you are playing serious they can mean the difference between
victory and death.
A scenario may be a better way to show how each of these things was something new
that I had to learn to be successful in this new community. A boss would be a great example as it
is where these things come into play the most. So we are fighting the boss and suddenly he does
an attack where he pulls the person closest to him you would then need to type in the middle of a
fight to move back. Then right after that he throws bombs into the air that land in the red circle
indicating the landing spots you would then have to move out of theses circle to not get hit and
take damage. Doing these two things together would be the multitasking and while doing all this
you has to pay attention to the screen and keep casting you character abilities. Now doesn’t that
sound hard when you put it in words?
These things went on to prepare me for the other interactions that I have had online.
Since I have played may other online games since that was my foundation from how I would
continue to interact with the online community. These things are even starting to carry into

3. modern day interactions as we continuously move towards a more internet and tech based
society.
This interaction and use of computer is got me started to the career I want to go to today.
In high school since I realized I wanted to learn all I could about the computer I had and
computer in general I started to take any computer class that they had available. Then they
added a computer programming class to the school curriculum and I jumped on the chance to
learn how to write programs and learn to speak to a computer and teach it to do the thing you
want it too.
Another door then opened up as I had to learn a whole new type of literacy. As anyone
who has taking programming would tell you it’s like you’re learning a completely new language
like French or Spanish. Except this language is a mix of mathematics, logic and phrases that
come together to give a computer life. I continued with this throughout high school and learned
new ways to speak as with any language there are different variations and I learned some of
these.
This isn’t the only thing that makes up computer literacy though you also have to know
how a computer works the electrical and components that enable it to run. My experience with
this was when I got some spare money from my grandpa and decided to upgrade my PC so that it
could run better and support better graphics. To do this I had to research what parts my computer
needed and what it could support and what other parts I would need to upgrade to make sure it
functioned properly. So in the end I ordered my parts for TigerDirect ordering a graphics card,
some new RAM and a new power supply so that the graphics card would have enough power.
Then when all the parts got here I unhooked my computer and put all the parts where they

4. needed to go. I was doing all this on a static mat as you need to when working on a computer so
that stray electricity doesn’t arc. As if it does it can fry some of the delicate electronics. So
working on the mat I put all the pieces in and then comes time to connect the power supply. Let
me tell you it isn’t easy for me a guy with pretty big hand to get them in a tiny spot to hook up a
cord with only about an inch of room. Then once that’s all done I realize that my power supply
doesn’t have the cords necessary to hook up to my graphics card so I then have to order up
another piece to make it so that one plug type changes into another so that it works.
These two events have led me to what I want to do with my life going forward as I am
currently striving to be a computer engineer. The things I have learned about computers can help
me out as these are things that become applicable in this field of study. As this field is ever
evolving and changing this knowledge will help me adapt to things to come. There will always
be technology and computers in our lives as it has become a part of modern society. I think a
good example of this would be how everything in our college classes is almost done completely
online and with a computer now days. This isn’t going to change anytime soon as we come out
with newer and better ways to interact with technology and computer. If anything our society is
moving to a stand point where we are becoming more and more reliant on computers to do
things. Not that I’m against this as I am an avid computer user and use it for almost everything
from doing work to relaxing in my free time.
In Conclusion computer literacy is something that I have learned and developed my own
skills with but there are other ways and other degree to how much you can know about
computers. However, as we are moving towards a computer based society everyone should have
some form of computer literacy under their belt so that they aren’t left behind.