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Episode 478(242) Technology - Keeping Up
This is Retirement Talk. I'm Del Lowery
"The picture is terrible!" so says my son. And then my daughter chimed in, "Yea, Dad. It is bad. You need a new TV." It was the day before my 69th birthday. The annual family gathering was just getting going and technology was coming to call once again. I responded to my daughter's agreement with, "Oh no, not you too?" The next day there was a wide screen HD TV given to me on my birthday. It was a combination gift from the kids and my wife. The 'I Got Junk" truck was soon in the driveway and my old faithful TV disappeared.
.My old TV was exactly 10 years old. I thought it gave me a good picture until I saw the picture on the new set. Amazing! It is so strange how we get use to something and don't recognize the usual wear and tear or deterioration of it over the years. This is one of the best things about having children. They recognize when the old chair sags or the picture on the TV just isn't doing the job.
Keeping up with technological change is not easy. The tendency has to be that the older folks get left behind. My son always says, "You want to keep up, Dad, or you will just get left farther and farther behind". It is true. I also know that "keeping up" can make life much more interesting.
A few years ago a friend biked from Bellingham, Washington to Bar Harbor, Maine and his tweets were fun to receive. I had joined Twitter about a year before but never used it. Then he told me that he was going to use it to keep people posted about his trip. It was a great way to share a bit of his experience. I found myself looking forward to the short comments. I never thought I would use Twitter but I did and it was fun.
Then while drinking coffee in a Vancouver, BC coffee shop I took a call from him on my cell phone (is there any other kind today?). We arranged to meet and talk out his bike trip. I sure look forward to hearing some stories and without the connection it may very well not have happened. Disconnecting our land line and going totally cell phone has it's advantages.
The day after my birthday both kids mentioned that my wireless signal in the house was not working well. It seemed to be irregular. A new router was needed. A quick trip to Best Buy solved the problem. My son set up the new Apple router which he said transmitted with more strength and reliability. So far so good.
I recognized it's importance one evening when our usual conversations paused for just a minute while we sat around the living room. There were seven of us in the room and at that very minute there were seven screens lit. Everyone was on a different site. There was conversation but everyone was doing something different. It sounds sort of weird but it only lasted a minute or two. I guess it would be no different than a family gathered around watching one particular program on TV...football for instance. Only in this case, everyone was watching whatever they wished.
Then came the Apple TV that he bought and put in our condo. We have had la TV there for years but it was never hooked up to cable or anything other than a DVD player. I had no idea what an Apple TV was. But we soon downloaded and watched our first movie through iTunes. Then just today I looked under podcasts and found that he had downloaded some of my favorites including this one, Retirement Talk.
Along the bottom of the screen were several podcasts that were suppose to be similar to mine. They were under the heading of Personal Journals. There was one called, "Thinking Allowed" put out by the BBC. I read the brief description and there was the name of one of my former students from 40 years ago. Gordon Mathews a professor of anthropology at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. What a treat! He sounded just like he did years ago.
Since then an Apple Watch has been added and a newer, faster desktop computer and a Roku. And today I am looking forward to the electric assist kit for my bicycle that is in the mail and headed this way. Hopefully it will extend my biking life by a few years.
"Keeping up" with technology certainly has it's advantages. It makes life more interesting. It allows us to communicate in ways most of us could never have imagined only few years ago. It keeps doors and windows open. And it ties families and friends together over great distances as past generations could have never imagined.
This is Retirement Talk with something to think about.
If you have questions, comments or suggestions contact del@retirementtalk.org
A resource from a listener: Best Free Online Degrees for Seniors guide is designed to assist seniors who aspire to enhance their intellect or consider starting a new career path. It features an overview of the top online degrees for seniors, emphasizing their numerous advantages, and a broad range of subjects to choose from. A friend's website: Terra Firma Designs: Fine Furniture, Stained Glass and woodworking workshops. Copyright 2010 RetirementTalk.org |
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