Tech savvy … or not
Janice Wells: I’ve been asked how my technology classes are going. Let me put it this way; today, after the Android class, I signed up for a Facebook class and Photo Slideshow & Paint class only to discover that I did them both last month.
I’ve been asked how my technology classes are going. Let me put it this way; today, after the Android class, I signed up for a Facebook class and Photo Slideshow & Paint class only to discover that I did them both last month. I think I’ll skip another Facebook class (shows how much I use it), but I would like to redo the Photo & Paint one, using a different device.
In spite of that, I would say things are going well. The instructor is very knowledgeable and nice; never makes you feel like a dimwit. I have learned a lot, especially today. Today was fun and good because I was using my Nexus tablet. For the two classes my brain has obviously blocked out, I was using my Surface 2 notebook.
The Surface 2 reminds me of a laptop I had years ago, nicknamed Damian because I felt it was the spawn of the devil. Instead of Surface 2, it seems quite logical that I refer to this instrument of torture as Damian 2. I have not found anyone yet who can render this thing user-friendly. They are quite expensive; would you like to buy one hardly used? I know where you can get a good deal.
Today, because I wasn’t using Damian 2 and therefore wasn’t feeling driven to tears or strong drink, I really enjoyed the class and my classmates. There were six of us, all women, (even though that isn’t always the case) and I wasn’t too stressed to notice that I was no worse than some and perhaps a bit farther ahead than others.
“Barb” started off by saying she mainly wanted to know how to save a recipe without having to search it every time. By the end of two hours she was discovering apps she didn’t know she had and remarking that she might end up not leaving the house for hours on end with all these new experiences at her fingertips. She was ahead of the rest of us in that she had a stylus. It is apparently fussy about angles and pressure so a stylus is no longer on my list of tools that might make life easier.
We were a chatty bunch; “It keeps wanting to give me a tour. I don’t want a tour.”
“I can’t get rid of Ricky Gervais.” (That was me.) “It keeps disappearing.” “I don’t have one of those…” symbols, prompts, messages, apps, whatever.
Frequently heard was “I think my husband/nephew/ daughter installed/did/deleted/hid that,” which led me to observe that perhaps the worse thing you can do is let someone else use your device. People who shall remain nameless get at one or another of my devices occasionally and afterwards it is invariably not exactly the same as the last time I used it. (Unfortunately, none of them can improve Damian 2).
I am not flattered that these nameless people think I understand what they’ve done and how to change it back or get rid of it. When I changed my hip, I had to learn how to walk all over again and I still don’t have the same gait, so why wouldn’t I have to learn something new if something new happens on my tablet?
As I write this, Dr. Oz is on TV telling me that Internet addiction is sabotaging lives. A guest is saying how he gave it up for 30 days and how hard it was. Dr. Oz explains how all this stuff literally screws up our brains with overstimulation and instant gratification.
Internet addiction leads to cognitive overload and impairs our brain’s ability to work on its own. By Dr. Oz’s definition, I am not addicted, but I can see how it might happen now that I’m learning more.
Maybe I know enough. I don’t want to be able to paraphrase the old joke, “Last week I couldn’t even spell cognitive over-loader and now I are one.”
Ha! Or should I say, LOL.
Janice Wells lives in St. John’s. She can be reached at janicew@nf.sympatico.ca.