This weekend brought a great deal of joy to the Perrone household. We were visited by my son, Matt, his wife, Stacy, and my beloved granddaughter, Abigail—and it was a wonderful visit. However, along with the joy, came the stark realization that if I’m not careful, I might fall behind in the technology department. Now, I know what some who know me are probably saying, “You? Fall behind? No way!” But they would be wrong. After all, I’m 70 and losing usable gray matter by the minute (aren’t we all?). Perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, so let me put it in “computer speak”—my “desktop” is getting a bit crowded, and my RAM is almost used up.
About a year ago, I finally succumbed to family pressure and obtained a “smart phone.” To complicate matters, I got an iPhone. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the thing. No, I hate the thing. Wait, I love the thing. I hate the thing. Do you see where I’m going here? The good news is that I am tethered to all the important members of my family in every way possible—wirelessly, “Blue-Toothedly,” “Internetedly,” “FaceTimedly,” etc. Not only that, I can take a picture of a bowl of soup, and instantly show it to the world on Facebook™ and Twitter™. I can send a recipe to my daughters-in-law via text, and get an Emoji response in return. I can electronically visit with my stepson halfway across the world in Thailand, and view his hotel accommodations, live and in living color—and sometimes I can’t! That’s because, in spite of the fact that it’s “all good” (as my kids like to say), there are “issues.”
For instance, things begin to get a bit dicey when it comes to the picture “thing.” There are questions galore. Let’s start with PhotoStream™, Apple’s picture program for its computers:
- What exactly is PhotoStream™?
- How does it get from my iPhone™ to my computer?
- If I delete a picture from my computer (it’s all tied together, you know), will it disappear from my PhotoStream™, or worse yet, from my Facebook™ page?
- Can I share my PhotoStream™?
- Should I share it?
Then there’s iPhoto™ and those pesky “events,” that populate its page (or is it the “app,” or the “site?”). Again, there are questions:
- Is iPhoto™ on my iPhone™, or is it on my computer—or both?
- Can I change the name of an event without losing the pictures associated with it?
- Can I move pictures from one event to another without ending up with duplicates?
- What if I delete an event accidentally? Can I get it back?
- What do all those dates mean?
Are you beginning to get the picture (pun intended)? And that’s just the tip of the “technology iceberg.” Aside from the iPhone™ and its pictures, there are texts, Skype™, Dropbox™, iTunes™, iPod™, Spotify™, and so forth. The list of challenges to the old noggin’ is endless and constantly changing. I’m in way over my head and swimming as fast as I can, trying to stay afloat, but it’s a real struggle. Fortunately, I’m not alone. Most seniors are in the same fix. The good news (for me, at least) is that my son, Matt, is a former Apple “genius,” trained to help, so I have a built-in life preserver of sorts—and I use it (I mean, him) every chance I get. We spent a good deal of our weekend together with him addressing the myriad of questions I had about my iPhone™ and its relationship to iPhoto™.
So what is the message I’m trying to communicate? Perhaps it can best be expressed by an old saw: “Use it or lose it! In other words, don’t let the train leave the station without you. Jump on board and enjoy the ride. Hey, anybody know how I can change the playlists on my . . . ? (Oh, forget it! I’ll just ask Matt.)
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Author Joe Perrone Jr's Blog 
The answer, Joe? Keep it simple; keep it fun. I had to make the bigger step in my aging life. Instead of trying to keep up with all of this high tech “stuff”, I carefully “move” every past memory, present happening, and future occurrence of love to my heart. My heart has never run out of room to trustingly store and keep. Thankfully, when I go with God, high tech “stuff” will vegetate here on Earth. Love cannot get lost in cyberspace. It will follow me wherever I go.
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I agree to a point, Karen. We can get so caught up in the mechanics that we lose sight of the human aspects of staying in touch. I do know that there will be no need for Facebook, Skype, texts, emails, or any of that stuff in the next world, and won’t that be loverly? 🙂
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Hi Joe,
That is a very interesting and witty way of trying to cope up with the modern world and its compulsions! Your train analogy reminded me of the advice my teenager nephew had given me when computers had just pushed their way into our lives and when I lamented that I didn’t even know how to use this haphazard placement of alphabets on the keyboard…why couldn’t they place it in order!!
My nephew warned me…’you have to board the train or you will be left behind’…I just gaped at him and he added…’if you don’t learn how to use the computer, you would be like an illiterate sitting outside a post office, requesting somebody to write a letter for you.’
I am glad I took that advice and here we are, having the whole world in our hands in the form of a smart phone! Even star trek writers couldn’t think of this revolution.
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Hey, we’re all in this together! 🙂
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My husband and got our iPhones this past summer after much urging from our family. Even two of the grandchildren had them! We said goodbye to our 8 year old flip phones and hello to the iPhone 6. Mine does all sorts of things without being asked. It sent an audio of my daughter-in-law arguing with our 6 year old grandson…”Ask your Father! I don’t know!” My daughter, who received the audio, messaged me back with, “Really, Mom?” I didn’t know I sent it. I don’t know how I sent it. And, how does it know I’m 20 minutes from home? Why does it care where I am? Our iPhone adventures go on and on. The point of my babbling is….You’re not alone my friend! At least we are trying to keep up with the times. That must count for something!
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Just like the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, we’ve got “C-c-c-c-ourage!”
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Joe, you are a lucky duck to have your “built-in life preserver” in your son, Matt. Does he rent out? lol
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I keep him too busy to even think about it . . . lol. He’s the best!
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