[NOTE: I have closed my Yahoo website and I’m moving that content to this site. Look to the right of this note and find “Home” and “Fun page.” I’ve just added “Favorite Links” and an “Afghan” button. Click on the buttons from time to time for additional information and updates. New blogs posted every weekend. For previous blogs please visit “blog archive” to the lower right of this screen. Click on the small black arrows for a drop down list.]
Oh, the agony and the pain. Nothing upsets us more than change. How many still long for their good ole’ horse and buggy. How about those old wringer washers? THOSE were the good old days. And over the last couple of days, it’s happened again. Much more widespread than the automobile replacing the trusted horse---and with lightning speed. In just a few short hours Facebook made significant changes and all the “friends” are in a frenzy. It was the lead story on the evening news. THE LEAD STORY.
I don’t particularly care one way or the other. I’ve been around long enough to have experienced mind boggling changes the likes of which my grandmother who lived to 91 wouldn’t believe if she were alive today. I can barely believe some of the changes and I’m actually living through them. Again, I don’t care. The reason? Changes, i.e., learning new things, keeps us sharp.
I remember years ago in my last office we switched from an ancient traditional phone system to something more involved (and evolved) and designed to actually be more efficient. In my memory it was the most significant change I ever experienced in an office and that new phone system was installed in the early ‘90s. It’s an antique now. Sort of funny as I think back on it. It almost ruined the staff. It was so upsetting (and so hated) that I developed a system for training everyone. I made up a series of daily “tips.” My logic was simple. It was way too hard to learn the entire system all at once, even though I did, but I figured one or two tips per day wouldn’t kill anyone. I was marginally successful with the tips and we eventually all adjusted to the new phone. Out with the damn little pink messages, in with voicemail! It was heaven for those of us writing those little pink messages.
Facebook is fun. I peek at it from time to time, I post a few pictures, and I read what my friends are doing and check where they are in the world and what’s going on in their lives. I’ve “found” so many old friends and it’s wonderful to see their names and faces each morning as I sip coffee. It’s a great tool made possible by incredible technology which we never knew would exist just a few short years ago. And here we are loving it and using it and some of us are quite expert at utilizing all its features. Until yesterday. [I wrote this on the Big Day of Change(s).] And I understand more changes are coming our way. One of the reasons the changes were designed is to remain competitive in the faster-than-the-speed-of-light changes taking place all over the world 24 hours a day in technology.
Google has introduced its version of Facebook and I’ve signed up to check it out and it’s quite nice. I haven’t explored it fully but I don’t see anything I don’t like. It’s the same with Facebook. I’ve often thought I’d like to see things work differently here and there but for the most part it was easy for all levels of computer savvy types to use it for fun. It isn’t rocket science. All they’ve done is try to make it more fun for us. I’m sure if it doesn’t work out they will change it. I’m positive they will change it. I’m positive changes occur in technology minute by minute and we only see the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes I think about what’s going on in the world and it’s dizzying. But at my humble level it’s just fun. So far.
At the grocery store today a woman in line held us all up because she wrote a check. Not only did she write the check but she wrote slowly and then spent more time than I could possibly imagine filling out her check record. [A check is a small rectangular piece of paper that when written on and presented to one’s bank permits funds to be transferred from the payer to the payee. At one time it was considered high tech. We didn’t use cash---we used a check.] When the clerk handed her the receipt she informed check lady that if she filled out a little survey online (pointing to the website address on the receipt) she would be entered into a contest to win $1000 just for filling out the survey regarding customer service. The woman looked at the receipt and said, “I don’t have an online.” Her words exactly. She smiled and walked away and I finished my transaction and I passed her in the parking lot and loaded my car. As I pulled away she had just reached her car and was unlocking it, manually. Oh, she was NOT a senior citizen. I was the senior of the two of us, by many years.
I admit I’m not thrilled with the new Facebook changes at the moment. I was comfortable flipping here and there and checking all my familiar places but I know that in a few weeks or less I’ll be right back where I was. If not there are many other competitive “books” I could try and they will be more than happy to find all my friends for me and send invitations. Many people belong to many social networking sites. I use Twitter every day too. I’ve been on it a very long time. Long before we heard about tweets on the evening news. It’s very easy to use and was easy to set up.
I no longer play CDs on my stereo, I plug in my iPod. I got rid of my land line and I use my cell phone, a “smart phone” style, exclusively. There are so many smart phones you need a degree from M.I.T. to select the right one. In a very short time only smart phones will be available and the regular cell phones will go the way of the dinosaur. People will moan and groan when they have to give up their regular cells. I remember the groaning when we went from analog to digital. I have a satellite dish on my roof that I operate with such a wonderful remote that when I use my old remote in my spare bedroom it seems like something out of a Dickens story. I remember the days when I had to help everyone program their VCR players. Does ANYONE own a VCR player? I have one somewhere. Wonder if I’d remember how it works???
I’m in the mode. I’m into the tech world and all its changes. And when I obtain a new technology I take the time to learn it because I know it won’t wait for me. If I don’t like it I go elsewhere. I have to learn new things all the time. Now more than ever. A 66-year-old brain needs the stimulation and frustration new technology provides.
Yikes. This is more stressful than I thought. I think I’ll email my doctor. He’ll email a prescription to the pharmacy and they will mail it to me. They have my payment information on file. But first I’d better check my balance on my bank’s website. If I don’t have enough to cover a prescription for my nerves I can transfer some from savings online. There I think I’ve got it covered. And it only took a couple of minutes and I didn’t use the car.
I’m not going back. We can’t go back. It’s not going to stop. We have to suck it up and hang on for the ride. We can still complain to the creators of whatever technology is bugging us but don’t expect too much sympathy. By the time they read our complaints they have already designed the new changes for next year and the year after that. Those changes are lined up on a runway and are ready to take off. Bring it on.
[No part of this content may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author. Blog series began in March 2009.]
