What am I, an Idiot? With Technology, Yes!

Mark Riley

It's a moment in life you never see coming, but when it does, you can't figure out why or how it happened. I'm talking about the moment you realize that when it comes to 21st century technology, you're stuck somewhere in the late 20th.

Maybe this has happened to you? Something either goes wrong with your computer, or there's a task you're trying to perform that you can't. In my case, my 11-year-old daughter saunters into the room and innocently asks, "What's wrong, Daddy?"

I proceed to explain my conundrum, only to have her hit a couple of strokes on the keyboard and solve the problem! Then, with a look that says "You're so '90s", she goes back upstairs to use her own personal laptop. What she does with it (aside from homework) is a total mystery to me.

Digital manipulation of our dog, courtesy my daughter!

Mind you, when I was coming up, there was no piece of equipment in our home that I knew more about than my parents. The very notion of such a thing would have driven my folks up a wall.

It's not just the computer that makes me feel like a relic from a bygone era. Lately, I've begun to understand that there are people in this world who no longer see the telephone as their primary means of outside communication.

Where once I would pick up the phone and call somebody I wanted to reach, I find it's now faster to either e-mail or text them. Forget texting. I have no idea how it works, and have never sent one knowingly.

Yet it seems that when it comes to mobile and cellphones, actually calling a number is no longer its primary function. This was driven home to me by several recent incidents. One, my daughter (yep, her again) took a phone I used to own after she lost hers.

I only used it to make and receive calls (isn't that the point?). Imagine my amazement when I called her on it and heard a voice say "Please enjoy the music while your party is located". Huh?

I had no idea that my phone had that feature. I'd never bothered to read the manual (too complicated). It wasn't long before I realized she'd customized that phone using lots of features I didn't even know was there.

I soon realized my little one hadn't read it either. Which is kind of the point of this rant. Children process information very differently than we do as adults. Don't ask them to explain it because they either can't or won't. But you know what? It works for them.

The other thing I'm noticing a lot is e-mail that says "Sent from my Blackberry". Yet another technological wrinkle I've yet to master. And I've actually got a Blackberry!

President Obama's Sectera Edge



I'm beginning to think in the next year or so I'll be consigned to "The Land of Left Behind".

Is any of this happening to anyone besides me? Or am I just an idiot?