The Computer's Shaping of Humanity

A seventy-eight year old grandmother greets her daughter and two grandchildren at the door of her condo with hugs and kisses all around. Currently residing in Santa Monica, California, Rhoda Rich was born in Brooklyn, New York and came out to California in 1958. She worked a series of sales and modeling jobs until she found her life long career, real estate. Setting records in sales for every real estate agency she worked for, she found the computer to be the most life-changing thing for her. Before the computer, she says, she had to study a book that came out every week with details of price reductions, new homes on the market, and sales. Today, she needs only to boot her computer up to get this information around the clock. She now works in a new firm, and still finds her computer as much a work tool as something she can use for her amusement and communication at home.

I was born in Brooklyn, New York. I first came out to California in the 1960s. In my first job in California, I worked in the garment industry. I first came into contact with computers when I went into real estate sometime in the late 1970s. When I first rejoined Jon Douglas Company, a real estate company, I went into the office one day. And the guy that was on floor duty that day, I asked him a question and he said come on I'll show you how to do it on the computer. And I thought that was just great.
After that, I'm pretty sure I got my first computer at home in the early 1980s. I think it's made me alive. I don't know how anyone could survive with learning how to use a computer. I found it amazing, and still do. I think the computer has changed our whole way of living.

It is truly fabulous. Some of my usual activities are I check my email. I check my horoscope. I got into the multiple listing services and check the new listings for real estate. I do other real estate things. When I'm bored I like to play the games like um, Hearts. My son in law does stocks and manages my funds for me on the computer. It truly has helped me financially and for many other things like that.

For the computer, I haven't really kept track of the costs and bills. It's the kind of thing where you need it, you buy it, and that's it. I think it's been a very good investment and has just about paid for itself. The computer has made me more efficient. I check the news and things like that. The News is more available since the invention of the computer. It's a fabulous invention and I think everyone should partake in it. It has helped my real estate career. I check into the multiple listings day and night. I see what has sold; I see what is new on the market. I could not be successful without it. I was also involved in real estate in the time before computers. We had a book that came out once a week. It wasn't at the same pace. You weren't as knowledgeable and the computer has certainly improved that.

I'm not sure if it's helped others in similar ways, because some people are still afraid to learn it. The computer has changed my life for the better and I think it's a shame that they have no interest in forwarding themselves. I still know people that don't have one, and that's because they're old and they're dumb. They could all use one for work and stuff. And keeping abreast with all the news. If nothing else you can play Hearts or Spider Solitaire.

Before the computer, I played golf, I played tennis. Uhh, I was more, you know, physically active. And now as I've gotten older, the computer has kept me busy with real estate, current events, playing solitaire, and hearts. Or just going into Google and doing a little exploration.
It is much easier to send messages with the computer rather than letters. There's Word, you can type emails. Uhh... it's very convenient. Mail will not become totally obsolete, because I know people that still send out birthday cards and have that personal touch so I don't think it'll be gone all together because of that. We do still use emails substantially more than writing letters to people. I have computer problems all the time. I have two gurus. My friend Roomy, he really explained me computers. He built my website and got my email addresses working and I used him a long time until I think he moved back to his family in Alabama. And now I have another one whose name is Shady. And he works here on the computers in my building, and whenever I need help on the computer or updating my mouse, he will come up and do it.
I've been told that I'd never use computers or I didn't need one. I had a very dear male friend who had been an executive with Xerox. And they were a big supplier of... mm.... copy machines. And he had started in with people that manufactured computers, and I asked him for several years to accompany me to Frye's in Burbank to help me pick out a computer because I had no knowledge. And his famous words were, "You don't need it, you'll never use it." And every time I'd turn on my computer, I would hate him more and more. And I stopped hating him because he recently died. And that was my friend Heinz. Yea, you don't need one, you'll never use it. Unbelievable.

The computer has replaced the telephone and other contacts. It's replaced the paper trail of multiple listings. I think everything about the computer is fantastic. The only thing that's bothersome to me is that we have no privacy anymore. That anyone with a telephone, with that capability, can take your picture without permission and that can be used like an intrusion on one's privacy. But it's a fantastic thing to have if you want to take some pictures. And I've sent my grandsons pictures and they've sent some to me.

Interviewed by Matt Anson