I Dared to Call Myself Computer Savvy …. ?

SERENADE 2 SENIORS

I never learned how to use a computer. My husband brought one home, arranged it on my desk next to a printer and then went back to work. He omitted to show me how to connect it or even turn it on. In those days, Q-Text was the program I had  on my ‘machine.’ Whenever someone came to visit, my first question was not; “How are you?” but “Do you use Q-Text?” If the reply was in the affirmative, I would ask a few questions and gain another drop of knowledge which I jotted down in my notebook by hand – not on the computer! Time passed and I took the plunge and started using Windows. No, I did not find it easier. At my advanced age, it was easier to use what I already knew but that was the rage, so I joined in.  I know that people shied away from me, knowing that i would pick their brains about computers while others were chatting and laughing, but it paid off and the day arrived when I managed to write my first short story on my computer, not by hand, and, I even found where I had saved it!

Today I am a grandmother of five, have been blogging for one year and am amazed at the number of people following my blog. But, I can spend hours fighting with my laptop. My grandchildren are impressed that I use a laptop and a smartphone. While preparing this blog, it took me over an hour to get the facebook picture above onto my laptop and then in the right spot.

Actually, I have become addicted to all this hitech stuff and when I visited the Silicon Valley recently, I asked someone to drive me past the large hi-tech companies and then I climbed out of the car to take a picture of facebook’s address; 1601 Willow Road using my iPhone. Sounds rather infantile, doesn’t it, but I had to do it and believe it or not, there was a steady stream of people doing exactly what I had done – taking pictures of the same thing. I use facebook in order to keep in contact with my grandchildren but have learned never to write on their walls,  rather, to use the message part of face book. I order and download books on my kindle and love it. As the weeks go by, I improve a bit, so, all you oldies out there, don’t say you cannot use a computer or a kindle. I think that it’s easier than cooking and baking.