I typed my undergraduate college term papers on a portable typewriter. By the time of my graduate studies, I typed my work on a miraculous invention called the desk computer. No carbon copies. Mistakes easily corrected.

When I began a job as a computer programmer, we used a huge mainframe to take over mundane accounting and other tasks. Then networking and the Internet revolutionized what was already revolutionary.

Smartphones, tablets, and the Internet became as much a part of our lives as television and automobiles did in earlier years. We take them for granted. What company, even a small one, doesn’t have a web site?

These inventions cover the globe. Multitudes now have access to them. They include hackers and the foreign groups accused of stealing information from millions of government employees, contributing to mixed feelings toward these postmodern creations. They bring added vulnerabilities, including cyber warfare.

But even as we encourage the necessary technical skills to protect ourselves, we have deeper needs, lost sometimes in the pursuit of our digital tools. They include more face-to-face communities as well as educational opportunities for all our children. In this age, every adult needs education and training, not just a few favored computer techies.