I spent twenty five years in
the computer business. I learned multiple operating systems, hardware, and
devices. I could walk up to a computer screen and decipher how to use that
computer within minutes. It all seemed so intuitive to me. So how come, now that
I traded in my antique flip phone for a smart phone, I now feel like a cave man
confronted by a library of books.
Yesterday Mark and I
upgraded. I got an android smart phone that is apparently much smarter than I
am. I have been poking at that thing, swiping the screen this way and that, and
listening to it beep, sing, and vibrate, yet I still don't know how to use it.
I now know how my mom felt when I tried to teach her to use a computer.
"Okay Mom, just click on
that icon and your email will come up."
"Click on? What does that mean, and by icon do
you mean that tiny little picture?"
"No Mom, use the mouse."
(Her computer did not have touch screen technology.) "Just slide the mouse
while watching the cursor move across the screen."
"Oh dear. I don't think that is possible."
By the time I left my mom
alone with her computer, I was certain that she had mastered the task of
opening her email... even if it would take her ten minutes. But alas, her email
account filled up with hundreds of emails while her computer became little more
than a giant space hog on her desk.
Anyway, so I now have a smart
phone that can receive texts, photos, and chat. I thought it would be a little
easier to reply to those things with a
smart phone. The old flip phone would take me five minutes to reply "hello
back at you" to a text. Now a nice keyboard pops up so that I can poke
away with my thumbs and fingers, misspelling everything because my thumbs and
fingers are too damn fat, and taking five minutes to reply because I have to
keep going back and retype everything.
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