published January 12, 2012
in the Stockton Sentinel
Stockton, Kansas
It’s been a
good week in smart phone land. After writing last week of woes with my new
phone, and admitting to all my readers that I am not smarter than my smart
phone, I want you to know that I’ve learned a few things this week and it may
get to live after all.
I don’t
spend a lot of time with the gadget like some folks who you cannot carry on a
conversation with unless you accept the fact that their phone is more important
than you are. I am capable of shopping for groceries totally on my own without
calling my husband for help in choosing a breakfast cereal. And I prefer to
drive while listening to music or an audio book rather than visiting on my
phone.
And
contrary to comments some people say about their own phones, I could live
without my phone.
But having
a phone that is really like a midget computer in my pocket is extremely
convenient, but only if I know how to use it.
That’s why
I was amused to read the story in the Salina
Journal Sunday entitled “Technically Speaking.” The Salina Public Library’s
tech trainer, Randy Merrell, gave a couple of “Holiday Tech” classes designed
to teach people how to use the new gadgets they received as Christmas gifts. Merrell’s
computer help classes at the library typically target a single device or
operation. But the holiday classes were aimed at folks befuddled with any
electronic devices. In one class, almost a dozen people showed up with their new
Kindles, iPads, laptops and digital cameras.
And so, in
walked 74-year-old Betty Wiegert, with her Motorola Zoom, a computer tablet
given to her by her son and daughter-in-law. “I have no idea what to do with
the thing,” she said. “I’m really not a computer person, but I figured if they
got it for me, I should learn how to use it.” She said she once mentioned how
nice it would be if she could stay in contact with family members over the
Internet. “I should learn to keep my mouth shut,” Wiegert said jokingly, as she
stared at the Zoom’s fold-out operating instructions. “I suppose a 3-year-old
could do it, but I don’t understand any of it.”
In the
class, Merrell demonstrated the features of Wiegert’s touch-screen tablet,
walked her through the WiFi connection process, how to post messages on
Facebook, and what the various symbols mean and how to use them. By the end of
the class, Wiegert may have been overwhelmed, but there’s a good chance she had
learned more than she realized. Hopefully she is now able to converse with her
family as they had hoped.
As for me
and my smart phone, without spending a lot of time, I try to learn one new
thing about it every day. Although I could live without it, I do take it with
me wherever I go and miss it when I don’t have it. I’ll probably never use all the
whistles and bells that it is capable of delivering, but I am confident I will reach
a point where I’m able to do whatever I need to do.
We’ve
becoming friends, my smart phone and I, and I think she and I are going to get
along just fine. Yes, “it” is definitely a “she;” I’ve named her Miley (short
for Milestone). And now she’s been fitted with a sexy, black polka-dot outfit.
It’s the least I can do after saying such disparaging things about her when I
first adopted her.
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