I am not the sort of person who handles things very well when they go wrong, especially when it’s something you rely on in everyday life.
Last week my awesome computer decided to pack it in. I kept going through all sorts of scenarios, wondering what I might have done wrong but according to the sales people in the world of computers, six years was a pretty good innings for a PC.
The computer told me it was closing down to do updates – that was fine. Then a message popped up on the screen. It was in purple and it flashed too quickly for me to read. I guess it was the computer’s way of telling me it was on the way out. I have certainly taxed it enough over the past few years.
I kept hoping it was going to kick back into life but it was not to to be. The computer was dead. I was in total panic. I rang my kids, they gave me all sorts of advice and tried to tell me everything would be just fine…
But no it was not fine, and to make things worse there was a lot of data on it that had not recently been backed up. I wanted to bawl my eyes out. Lots of articles, short stories, film stuff, photos, precious memories etc.
Over the weekend my daughter had an IT colleague from work take a look at the hard drive. Fortunately for me he was able to retrieve all my files. Phew! I breathed a huge sigh of relief when she told me. I had semi-prepared for the worst.
As I needed to get another computer, my husband and I went out to purchase one. They all looked so stream-lined and most of them seemed to be touch screen. I felt a bit panicky and pretty much chose the one that looked the nicest and was in my price range. My husband left all the decision-making to me as he has even less computer knowledge than I do.
So now I have this new, shiny, state of the art computer. It has a touch screen and the desktop keeps changing colour. That I do like, but quite honestly I am having trouble grasping the new layout. I am terrified of new technology and prefer things to be straight forward and uncomplicated.
My grandson plays happily on his mother’s iPad and iPod and I find it quite unbelievable that such a young child has mastered these modern devices so quickly.
When purchasing my new computer my husband also got some DVD’s for my grandson. Of course he wanted to see them as soon as we got home. Neither of us knew how to put them on. Yes, ridiculous I know, so my husband had to call my daughter for step by step instructions. By the time my grandson was ready to see the next DVD he knew how to put it on and promptly showed my husband how to do it. This child is three going on thirty.
I know we have to accept change and progress but heck, the pace it’s happening at is quite nerve-wracking for us oldies.
The kids just go ‘Aw Mum’ and often I am too embarrassed to say I don’t know how to do something. When it comes to learning new things I am pretty blonde.
I have talked about progress before. Progress is all good but it would be great if companies produced manuals to help oldies grasp new and easier ways of getting used to technology. Ease us into it; it’s not good for our blood pressure to get all worked up because we can’t work out how to operate new fan-dangled equipment.
I often wonder what my parents would think if they could see the changes that have occurred since they passed away fifteen years ago. Progress does seem to move forward at an alarmingly fast rate.
Now I have finished this article I have to work out how to save it. This could indeed be interesting…
Hopefully, I don’t delete the whole thing.
Cheers till next time.
By Kay Rayner