I may not look like your Grandma, but put me in front of a computer or smart phone and you won’t be able to tell us apart.
I’m a very tactile person and I like THINGS. Real life things I can see, touch, smell. This is why I don’t trust “the cloud!” I like my things to be in my hand, pocket, purse you get the idea. You know when you have that panicky moment where you think you lost your keys and you frantically start touching yourself like a weirdo, hoping they’re in one of your pockets (they should really re-think where they put pockets on clothes). A pat on the booty reveals they were in your back pocket all along, and you sigh in relief. The cloud gives me a constant “I just lost my keys feeling.” That is a shitty feeling.
Now the cloud may be a lot for people to wrap their heads around. My disconnect with technology is much more that my trust issues with the cloud. I still prefer taking pen to paper over (*insert preferred writing substitute that I don’t even know exists here). ACTUALLY writing things gives me a chance to show off my penmanship; it is a thing of beauty. I like good old fashioned punch cards over putting my number into the IPad being used as a register. My car has way too many buttons and I don’t even get me started on remote controls. I don’t think our TV’s even have buttons anymore. Luckily I never change the channel (HGTV 24/7). If they do have buttons, I can’t find them. I’m definitely sounding like your grandma now. When I’m trying to checkout at the store I never know whether to swipe, tap or insert (now it just sounds like I’m talkin’ dirty). You get the idea…
Technology has removed so much surprise from our lives. How can we stay on our toes when we know who is calling, we can see who is ringing our doorbell, we get an alert about our package deliveries, know without doubt the sex of our babies soon after conception, etc. (this is all coming from a person who claims to not like surprises). I guess I kind of miss the anticipation of checking the mail, answering the phone or opening the door. We have gotten lazy because of this too. I don’t answer my phone or door when I don’t want to, and I go days without checking the mail because I already know what’s in there. I appreciate all these conveniences, don’t get me wrong, but I also miss the days when things weren’t so simple (which are ironically referred to as “simpler times”).
I pride myself on being a part the generation that used rotary phones, type writers, record players then mastered the technology we have today. We didn’t grow up with it; it grew up with us. Somewhere along the way they started making technology “easier” and accessible to everyone, including grandma. Maybe this is where they lost me. Simple has never been my thing. I like to think that I couldn’t just dumb-down my big, giant brain enough to operate a smart phone efficiently (I’m pretty sure they have even trained animals to do it). Put me back on Windows ’98 and I can show you all kinds of “cool tricks.” Now, it takes me 20 seconds to pull up an app on my phone. I like to play it off as being cute and charming #totesadorbs. Not sure if it is working or not. The good news is: I feel less “addicted” to technology than most of my peers. The bad news is: I’m trying to do this blogging thing, and it turns out it requires me to be more technical than I was prepared for. I really want to get this right, and it is not as simple as just being witty and hitting the “publish” button. I won’t bore you with the details (I couldn’t if I tried because it is pretty much a foreign language to me), but this is more of a challenge than I expected. I hope I’m making it look easy! If so, I’m #winning.
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