by Phyllis McCrossin
I guess I’m getting to be “that age.”
Today I opened my laptop and accessed my mailbox. Yahoo mail has been updated. I didn’t like it. Not. One. Tiny. Bit. I spent all of five seconds trying to find my stuff and then stumbled across a “restore my old email settings” tab. I could not click it fast enough.
Don’t change things on 65-plus-year-olds. We don’t like it.
Thing is, I know there will come a day when I can no longer figure out how to navigate computers, the Internet, access my bank account, etc. Like my parents, I’m going to have to rely on our children to help me out.
King is already to that point. Every now and then he’ll hand me his phone and ask me to “fix it.” Normally it’s just a matter of his having 45 tabs open at once and I go through and close them.
I have shown him (several times) how to go to his football picks in whatever fantasy football program he’s using. I suspect he gave up and is having one of our sons make his picks for him now.
Seriously, I don’t judge. I’m not that far behind him.
There are times, for instance, when we are at a restaurant and the bill comes. I can figure it out, but when our daughter is with us it’s easier to simply hand the debit card to her, tell her “big tip” and let her complete the transaction. It’s easier than having her drum her fingers on the table waiting the extra two seconds it takes me to make sure I’m pushing the right buttons. (I may be exaggerating. Sometimes, to be honest, I just don’t want to deal with technology and it’s easier to feign ignorance).
A gentleman came into the store today, he also lives in his RV full-time, but when he’s not off on an adventure, he stays on his son’s property. It’s a good arrangement for him as he can come and go as he pleases.
He stops in regularly to dump his RV black tanks and fill his propane. He’s retired. He’s kept abreast of the latest technology and was telling me how he was having a difficult time finding a WIFI signal booster that works to his liking. Good for him. I didn’t tell him that I often drive around until I have full bars. That’s as much technology as I can handle.
A long time ago I worked as a marketing writer for a mid-sized university in Michigan. I provided the marketing “blurbs” for both print and the web, so I worked closely with a web designer who did a lot of coding for the website.
I always marveled at how she could find a glitch in a web page just by looking at a bunch of signs and symbols on the code page. She’d skim through this foreign language and then breathe a sigh of relief, “Ahh, there it is. That’s the problem.” How she could read that stuff and find an errant backslash where there should have been a greater-than symbol is beyond my realm of knowledge. I’m guessing my son who designs our web page can do the same thing.
It’s an interesting thing – technology. It kind of serves to make the world a smaller place. This weekend, for instance, an Australian Shepherd Midwest; Rescue organization is hosting a gathering at the campground. They are calling the gathering “Wigglestock” apparently after the wiggly-ness of the Australian Shepherd. This group has been working together for a long time – arranging transport for rescued dogs, finding homes for dogs, etc. – but for many this will be the first time they’ve met one another in person. How cool is that?
I should be embracing this technology stuff more. I mean, I’m using it right now. It just keeps moving faster than I can keep up and I fear that once I’ve fallen too far behind there will be no catching up.
Ahh, life in the not-so-fast lane.
Be kind, don’t post false memes and don’t forget to vote.