Technologically Illiterate
To start my washer, I press down a button and turn. Without thought, study or worry, this marvelous contraption springs to life, sending a cascading waterfall over our dirty clothes. It’s grunt work. A labor that just a century ago was done by hand in creeks and wash-houses by immigrants and farmer’s wives. But modern technology pushed this task forward and grass stained socks and khaki shorts in five sizes are swished and swirled into a clean state. This is good.
What is not good is my ability to handle all other technology. The past few weeks have found me banging my technically illiterate head against the wall. Our new camera came with an instruction manual to rival the darn seventh Harry Potter book. New software had to be installed to download the pictures. It took me an hour, an hour that I didn’t have, to get the pictures from my camera to the computer. A used Polaroid costs about $15 on Ebay.
I asked my husband for a fancy phone, not the incredibly cool iphone, (although I would die to have one) but one that gets internet and emails. Problem is my email address changed a couple months ago and I don’t know how to fix my phone. I watch my thirteen year old push buttons and text and change ring tones on her phone daily. I’m lucky to find the vibrate button.
The DVR, however, is my friend. This marvel of technology allows me to record any television program with a few simple buttons. And I get to fast forward through the commercials when I watch my mindless junk. Why do I have problems with some technology, yet other stuff like the array of buttons on our industrial-sized espresso machine feels like second nature? Fear.
Yes, I’m afraid I’ll kill the camera, computer or phone. Unlike my kids who push buttons until they get the answer they’re looking for, I timidly touch the safe switches and casually glance at the instructions. Remember when computers crashed all the time? You could really screw them up. Now most electronics are more forgiving, but I still fear an untimely death each time I meet a new piece of electronics.
I want that front loader washing machine, the technologically advanced one that is supposed to sense how dirty your clothes are and then adjust its settings. But I fear there may be a computer in its guts. Maybe I should just stick with the dial.
3 Responses to “Technologically Illiterate”
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August 22nd, 2007 at 9:11 pm
ooooh (drool drool) I want one too. In fact, I am hoping that this fall we can re-do our laundry room (it’s dimensions are 6 x 5 and I have so much other stuff in there - arts and crafts and tools and you name it). There is hardly room for the dirty clothes piles that happen overnight.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
One piece of advice that my mom stressed to me over and over again was to keep up with my laundry. “After all,” she would say, “laundry does itself.” I still agree with this advice, and actually follow it! I wish, though, that other technologies “do themselves” as the case may be. My television, telephone, computer, iPod, navigation system, etc. just don’t co-operate like my washing machine! I must do THEM… KEEP UP WITH THEM… BUY NEW THEMS when they malfunction or become obsolete, which is all too often! Ah, the simple pleasures of just letting my laundry do itself!
Sharon - Pinks & Blues Girls
August 30th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
When we read your various lessons, Kathy, sometimes we don’t get through them as quickly as we had planned. There’s a reason for that. It’s difficult to read fast when your eyes get a little clouded. Keep up the wonderful work.
Mitch and Char Barnes