Tuesday 22 January 2013

Understanding Technology, No Chance.

    A strange week indeed. My computer went funny, real funny. Funny fonts, writing, distorted, big, useless, unusable. I'm not clever enough to tell you properly the problem. we, my wife and I pressed every conceivable button/key (I bet that helped) and then contacted friend Russell, the closest person to a genius I know. He tried for two hours, said something about a card and is still on the case.
I know I sound totally vague but my understanding is tiny. I don't even like computers but am amazed how involved I am with the things. Plus when they 'break' you can't look on the internet for a new one!
    I write reviews for a paper. I cannot send them without emailing. I am still writing, e-books etc. All the information I need/use is on the internet. I send and receive e-mails. I do a weekly blog and read other peoples blogs. It is my window on the world. I never realised I use a computer almost everyday of my life and will presumably continue to do so until the day I die. I have been blogging for four years. I have seen many fall by the wayside, some of longstanding fame. It is only now I realise what a mind numbing committment it is. And when blogging becomes a chore enough is enough. (I love it in the main but I can see the problem.)
   I wonder if technical wizz kids, people with more aptitude than me (virtually everyone, certainly in the western world) realise how incomprehensible it all is to seventy plus year olds who have only just mastered the light switch. An example; Cameras, computers talk about 'default settings'; how the heck am I expected to know what that means? HTML, I understand that is 'computer talk' but it's gobbledy gook to me and always will be. All the instructions the computer threw up as we tried to fix it I have already forgotten. Suffice to say they were foreign to me. As incomprehensible as Arabic (I speak no Arabic!) Yet the 'thing', when it is working has become a big part of my existence; I cannot imagine life without it.
   I know computers, like boxes, can get full up. (I thought that might be my problem.) Mine has many, many files duplicated, I am terrified to do anything about it for fear of doing the wrong thing. (I understand some people have someone employed to 'manage' their computers. Sounds a good idea!) I often think of life in similar terms. At my age 'the box' is pretty full and I occasionally think there is no more room to store anything else, but we seem to manage.
    We live in a very technical age, progress is fast and getting worse. Strangely enough I don't have a mobile phone. I understand many people cannot imagine their life without one. What on earth do they find to text and talk about I wonder. Where will it all end? How far will it all go? When did you last go a day without using a computer or a mobile phone; watch television or listen to the radio?

    The pace of progress is quickening. We'll come back to this theme another day, in the mean time I thought you might like to see three items from my 'museum' that I remember in use. (All three I personally used. The stereo cards were grannies, much treasured when we were children.) And I'm a mere seventy three, not seven hundred and three!

28 comments:

the fly in the web said...

Terrifying to think that I bought my first computer in 1998...and now the so and so thing is indispensable.

We have one mobile 'phone for emergencies or when one of us wants to be picked up from the bus station....but when I'm out I see people with the thing stuck in their ears...what do they find to talk about?

And then I see people - usually at airports - with what looks like a clip on their ear lobe and someone told me that that was Bluetooth...whatever that is. I though it was a viking...

Valerie said...

I'm almost 79 and still learning, and still loving it. It's not as hard as people make out, Ken. The computer, I mean, not the age! I used to have Bluetooth but gave up on that, it wasn't good for the hairstyle, but the smartphone I will NEVER part with. It is organiser and diary, as well as a phone. Look on the bright side, Ken, you're only a lad yet...

Charlotte Mooney said...

Come off it GOK! Over 1100 followers on Blogger and you don't understand technology? Pull the other one. LOL.
I do admire your resistance to mobile phones though. But maybe you could have one for emergencies, and in the car...

Nota Bene said...

I remember the stereo cards...3D is making a come back...that's progress for you!

Unknown said...

Well you've got about 20 years on me and I'm really impressed, Ken! My mum is mid 70s and gets incredibly frustrated with her friends who aren't on-line; she shops for food, books, treats, presents etc; she organises holidays, compares insurance, renews her library books...the list goes on. I now need to get her blogging!

Eddie Bluelights said...

No-one has all the answers, Ken. In fact I would easily get stumped if something really went wrong. In fact now blogger has changed to a new format I am lost to manage my sidebar information. I need to try to find out how to do it all over again! HELP!! I am shouting to my son, but alas he is not here but out of town.

It is incredible how reliant most of us have become on Computers. Are they a blessing, or are they a curse I wonder?

Sueann said...

Yes time is rushing forward and I made a promise to myself and asked my hubby to agree to it. Stay up with technology. And so far we are only a little behind! And we are trying to stay up with it all! Sheesh!
So good luck on your puter...hope it clears up soon!
Hugs
SueAnn

Troy said...

Here's the link you've been looking for Ken
http://tractorboytroy.blogspot.co.uk/
Although a Tractor Boy now I've always been, and always will be a Bantam Boy too.

D.J. Kirkby said...

I back everything up on USB memory sticks and on Google Drive for this very reason - I am terrified of losing all my writing. My Grammie `kirkby is 90 and she emails, uses Skype and has just joined Facebook. My husband and I spend much of our weekly Sype conversation with her trying to sort out and answer any questions she has about using online sites like Facebook or even just how to store photos on her iPad. We don't mind because we think she is awesome!

Jay at The Depp Effect said...

Well, I am a mere 50-something and if something goes wrong with my computer I just panic and yell for my husband! I know HTML is a programming language only because he and one of our sons are programmers and the other son is pretty darned good on a computer himself. Lucky for me, I have two techies on hand for problems.

We do have mobile phones, which we first got when we rode motorbikes, because it seemed a better prospect to end up in ditch with a phone, than without one. Naturally we have come to rely on them.

We often play the 'did you ever think ... ?' game. For instance 'When you were ten, did you ever think you'd be able to make a phone call from the middle of a field?' Mere youngsters compared to you, there are still so many things we use daily which would have been unimaginable to us as children.

The camera in your picture reminds me so much of my father, who had one like it. Oh, and I have a radio which looks a bit like yours ... except it's an internet radio!!

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