STAYING CONNECTED
Keeping in Touch with our Social Networks or:
The joys and perils of a
tech-full world
Like most of us in my generation, (approximately those born
between the late 1930’s through the 1960’s) rotary phones attached to kitchen
walls served the purpose and need to communicate. It was how we set dates for upcoming events;
wished friends and family member’s holiday or birthday greetings; invited
friends or family members over to visit, talk, enjoy a meal together.
On rare occasions when we needed a phone while out of the
house, there were usually public “phone booths”, although often they were out
of service. You could use them to change
plans or check on driving directions. We
laughed as Dick Tracy checked his “wrist watch phone” or the “get smart”
detective listening to instructions from his shoe.
When television came into our houses, they stayed in place
on a stand, and you walked over to the set to turn it own, change channels,
(only a few back then) straighten the “bunny ears”; (metallic antennae that
captured the reception) and resume watching your “shows”. I still remember a conversation my late
husband Ben had with our then 10 year old grandson, Alex. Alex asked Ben to change the TV channel using
the remote. “Which remote?” The table held three or four. When that was clarified, Ben explained that
as a child we had no remotes, he had no televisions. Radios were the “in” thing, and of course,
large unwieldy RCA Victrola record players, with records that
were fragile and easy to break.
The last few decades have seen a virtual explosion of ways
to communicate, share information, be entertained, and keep in touch with
friends and family. You can buy
virtually anything without leaving home; keep abreast of frightening or bizarre
stories from around the world about almost anything.
So here’s the unique position we as seniors face: with
advanced and modernized prevention and treatment programs to ease the aging and
illness processes we have begun to experience many more healthy and productive
years as compared with our grandparents.
But we are slower to learn, and often need more coaching when faced with
the inevitable: if I want to keep in
touch with my out of town grandkids, I should get used to using skype or face
time for periodic visits. Amazingly, so
many of us in our seventies, eighties, and even into our nineties have learned
to adapt better than we would have expected.
There is still the learning gap between simple checking of emails, and
more complex “applications”. Yet with
support, senior classes in the new technologies, we have amazingly added to our
capacities to communicate.
It’s not always an easy path, but we seem
to be sticking it out, learning more easily than we would have thought
possible. Ironically, our uncanny
ability to multi-task and problem solve has aided us, but clearly for most of
us the pace and the retention of data moving beyond the speed of light (and
eye-hand coordination) catches us up.
Our younger friends or family
members may make assumptions that you actually do know how to open an email,
read it and send a reply; “pull up” a calendar to check appointments, record
new ones (when you figure out how to change your “preferences”;
(Does this mean I can order coffee with soy milk?). Hearing a soft “ping” sound alerts us to a
new message, but we are in the middle of driving, or just turning off the
lights. Check it out now, Wait till
morning? What if it’s important? Could I
actually hear it if it did “ping”?
Little by little these light cell phones take over your life
or at least “wedge themselves” in between you and those formidable memory
keepers. It’s ok if you forget an
appointment; your phone (when programmed) will remind you “your battery is
loosing power”; You have an appointment with Dr, X; remember to “fast” before
your appointment with Dr X so you can get an accurate “fasting blood sugar”
test.
Friends old and new, some you may have forgotten, suddenly
re-emerge in your life with the help of Facebook, an “app” with a serious case
of OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).
She lets me know who has a birthday coming up, changed phone numbers
or moved. I haven’t seen an “Obit”
recently but that too may join the various and sundry miscellaneous
announcements.
And we mustn’t forget the computer in its role as “weather
person”; temperature today at 4 pm, weekend forecast...; I can even track
weather patterns in Austin where my daughter and
her brood live, or St Petersburg
where I spend my winters. Google got in
the game this year, redesigning my Google screen page with pictures of birthday
cakes, sparklers, etc wishing me a happy birthday. Yes, it was my birthday that day!
I could go on, but the phone just informed me I have an
appointment in 10 minutes to get my nails manicured, so I will sign off!
Before I go, I’d like to start collecting ideas from my
friends, blog readers: Tech-savvy
seniors have the additional benefits of using technology to set up emergency
contact information, find articles quickly on topics of note, and even have a
short “visit” with a housebound friend.
Here are some other thoughts:
·
Figure out a way to include a temporarily sick
friend to attend your book club via facebook.
·
Start compiling with friends a list of things
you’d like to do if you could do it with others, sharing driving, making it
social and not a chore.
·
...now you
can add more......
