Technology for oldsters (who are NOT dummies)

 Last week I had to take my computer into a repair shop. I chose a local repairman with a good reputation. He turned out to be a young man, very casual and rather unkempt, as is the fashion among the young. The shop was in his garage. Even so, he seemed competent and I tend to be trusting. As it turned out, my trust was justified.

We first starting using a computer in the 1980s, while our kids were still living with us and we were serving the church in Bolivia. We had heard about personal computers and were attracted to the idea; much of my work on the field was in writing textbooks and taking council minutes as secretary. Hal spent a lot of time in class preparation. We figured a computer would help us.

While on a furlough back in Oregon, we approached our mission board with a request that they help us purchase a computer. Computers were even more expensive then than they are now. The board deliberated, then told us they had decided that personal computers were too experimental and probably a passing fad. If we wanted to purchase our own, they wouldn’t protest, but they certainly were not going to spend the offerings of the church on a whim.

We took a leap of faith and bought a Mac, at that time a big, heavy, grey, boxy machine, and a challenge to carry with us on the plane back to Bolivia. We learned how to use it with a little help from the handbook and a seminary course before we left for the field. We were total technological neophytes.

Of course it helped us, cutting our working time in half. (A few years later, the mission board began supplying computers for all their workers.) Since then, we’ve gone through quite a few computers and now we each own one. I depend on mine as I continue writing and editing.

But I have to admit that I don’t understand the inner workings or most of the surface applications. I tend to stick to what is helpful to me. And as the technology is advancing, I am definitely not keeping up. Is that due to age and resistance to change? I hope not, but maybe a little.

I’ve developed my own way of fixing small glitches, such as a frozen screen, or the appearance of little wavy lines running across my document. I shut down the computer, using the escape button if the machine is frozen; I then close the lid and pat the computer, saying comforting words like, “There. There. You’ll be fine. Just rest a while.” Then I leave it off overnight. In the morning all is well again.

Here in the retirement community, we have opportunities to grow technologically, with a dedicated computer room complete with tutorials. A staff technician comes to our apartments when we need help. The community website provides activity announcements, dinner menus, addresses of all residents, communications (including this blog), and much more. Free internet service is part of the deal.

Of course, not every resident here takes advantage of this. Many of the older members of the community don’t own a computer and are not in condition to adopt the leap into technology it would require. And some just stubbornly say, “No! I don’t need that!” But most of us are able to take at least minimal advantage of computers and other resources on the internet. The stereotype of the old person totally rejecting computer technology or too mentally diminished to use it is just not true of most of us. We’re not dim-witted. It makes me mad when I hear people give instructions like, “Just explain it like you would to your grandmother.” Or worse, “That’s so simple even my grandpa could get it.”

Stop it!

Most of us here are “life-long learners” (lovely phrase). We’re far from finished learning new skills and that includes technological skills.

Maybe someday I’ll get so feeble I’ll turn off my computer for good. But even then, I’ll probably want one of those machines that has a name and talks to me. I’ll ask it to read out loud Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Well, maybe not that one. How about Winnie the Pooh? Then I’ll ask it to sing me to sleep with a lullaby. And it will.

Good night.