The New Normal

Unless you've been living under a rock somewhere, you know that Steve Jobs passed away last Wednesday, October 12, 2011. His death may not have amounted to much in your day, and probably not much to most people beyond a quick news flash in their daily routine.

Lauris, Lauren and I were out shopping for a new bookcase earlier this week, and reflecting on that experience I realize that Steve Jobs has really helped to shape what's going to be the new normal for Lauren as she gets older.

We were in an office supply store, deciding that would be a good place to start for looking at comparable bookcases to the one we needed to replace. It was looking at bookcases and alternatives to bookcases that made Lauris realize maybe we should go with an cube organizer instead of a bookcase. So we had a dilemma, do we just buy the organizer, assume it's a decent price or do we shop around looking for a better deal?

That's when I took out my cell phone, an iPhone, went to one of the apps I have and took a picture of the UPC code on the package. The app instantly identified the object by the UPC code and scanned the web and local stores nearby for a better price. While many web sites and stores had prices that were close, the store we happened to be in, actually had the best price for the organizer, so we picked it up as part of our purchases that day.

That's what the new normal looks like. Our cell phones have become much more a part of daily lives than just a means of communication. While sitting with Lauren on the benches outside her school this morning waiting for school to start, she asked me for my phone, so she could practice math, and she did two sets of drills in arithmetic before the school bell rang in a little app designed to quiz kids on the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

The new normal. How different it is than when I was Lauren's age.