WHERE ARE ALL THE KNOBS AND DIALS THEN?
Warming to my task, can I ask any reader of as certain age if they actually know how to operate (if that’s the right word?) the so called QR codes?
Like millions of people of my generation who care to admit it we/they are hopeless at all things even vaguely ‘tech’. Alas, I belong to an age when you twiddled knobs, dialled numbers and switched switches. If you could do these simple things, you were in the slang of that time “switched on man.” Sorry about that, but it had to be said. Nowadays of course it seems that there are scores of ways to confuse a person even when seeking to achieve something spectacularly simple in life. I remember a couple of years ago when I was given my last two Covid jabs at the local fire station hereabouts (yes really!). Unlike sensible Mallorca, where I was given a proper piece of paper that I could show to anyone seeking confirmation that I’d indeed been jabbed, here in the UK no such paperwork was made available and so I had to ask this volunteer how I was supposed to prove that I’d been given the proper treatment. Ten minutes later after a lecture regarding Apps and whatnot, I still didn’t have any idea as how to prove that I’d had my last two Covid injections.
Warming to my task, can I ask any reader of as certain age if they actually know how to operate (if that’s the right word?) the so called QR codes? These blotchy black and white squares that infect everything like a modern day pox are a complete mystery to me I’m afraid. You now need them to go to the cinema, send back parcels and much else - they have spread like a virus. As someone who has just about mastered the technique of paying for parking when out shopping with a cash-card, but on other occasions this technique just doesn’t work. Last week I went to my High Street bank, which happens to be about the only one actually open in the largish town I inhabit. In talking to a young chap at the ‘Help Desk’ he almost wet himself laughing when he saw my phone. In fact, I thought he might call some of his colleagues over to see it for themselves - what is wrong with these people? Honestly, I’ve done my best to catch up and go digital, plus I am thinking about investing in a properly up-to-date smartphone as well, but when I approached a chap who I knew was switched-on about this sort of stuff, I immediately wished that I hadn’t. I did ask him to give me the “simplified” version of what to do and when to do it - but he just launched into a meaningless spiel complete with hand gestures and I was compelled to read my cheque-book stubs. Only joking! Honestly, sometimes I feel as if modern life has passed me by particularly when I spot people paying for stuff and having things such as airline tickets on their phones - how do they do that then? I don’t like to think that I’m completely stupid, although a woman I know would challenge that assertion I’m sure. However, if I am totally honest I have just bought a snazzy digital radio to use in my little office space. The trouble I’m afraid is that there are no knobs to twiddle or dials to move about or adjust, just random buttons to push and confusingly it doesn’t even have an arial either. Truly, the ‘techsavy’ are set to inherit the earth, whilst those of us of a certain age and with absolutely no facility to understand modern stuff such as endless complicated codes, might well come back in to fashion some time in the near future. Please God!