What is your way of being?
,Considering how new, social media and technology is to many of us over a certain age. I am more and more amazed by how many hours we spend on our devices.
My husband and I live a fairly simple life without TV, but have replaced it by spending many hours on ipads. This is more solitary, as we rarely watch/play together. We have very different tastes.
Travelling abroad with lots of long distant relationships, its a real blessing to keep in touch with; my Mum, children, grandchildren and friends. It is also essential for bureaucracy and world news.
I have just had visits from two sets of old friends all over 70. They were all on and off their devices, communicating with far flung family. Also checking facts we would once have debated for hours. Now there is no uncertainty, google always has the last word.
My first love is still a real book in my hand. But I will also read online. I find if inside we are both 99% of the time fully engaged with books but more often devices. Outside nature takes over and we return to absorbing, enjoying our environment. Although I am attempting to get into a digital camera.
My Mum aged 93 as usual is an exception. She uses social media, to follow the family and will swop news and photos with us all. We have daily contact. But she uses it for an hour and puts it away. She sits quietly with her own thoughts doing absolutely nothing! I find it quite disconcerting. She has no need to look up facts every few minutes. Quite content with her own memory and version of the world.
I wonder where you all fit on the spectrum, as fellow social media users?
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From a young age I was always fascinated by tech gadgets. What we have at our fingertips these days blows my mind sometimes. I remember being about fifteen years old listening to a radio show early in the morning before setting off to do my paper round, and the radio DJ was describing a new gadget that was about the size of a pocket calculator and similar in looks, which could communicate via satellite to a music database. The idea was that you could type in a catalogue number for a certain song or tune and the gadget would access the database via satellite signal and you could then hear the song playing through a little speaker on the device or you could plug headphones into it. I was amazed. They were offering a free trial of the gadget to the first one hundred callers to get through on the phone to the radio station. I went out on my paper round and then to school in awe of this device. Just imagine being able to play any song from a little hand held device, wonderful. Later in the day back home I heard on the same radio station the DJ pleading with people to stop calling in because it wasn’t true. No such device existed. It was an April Fools prank set up by the station and of course nothing like it could exist, it’s pure science fiction. And now? Not only can I play any song but I can call or message any person and watch any Film or TV show etc etc. So I love this technology yes, and I don’t live anywhere near my family either so it’s fantastic for keeping in touch as well.
Brilliant. We used to watch ‘Tomorrow’s World’ with the fantastical things of the future. I remember mobile phones like house bricks, that everyone wanted. We sure have come along way, but is it too far?
I also use my PC to keep in touch with daughter and grandkids, and other family members. My biological father loved techi stuff. He was always remodeling stuff or building things. He was fascinated with the etch a sketch toy when they were made. It’s too bad he died before people began having computers in their homes. I think he would of loved them. That’s probably why I love computer games and computers so much. Norman and I both loved computers and had our separate PC’s. We often messaged each other on the PC rather than yelling back and forth to talk. When Norman died I had several years of messages saved up. I spent several days reading those again. It was kind of like he was still there.
Interesting our different attitudes and experiences with our tech. You sound very warm towards yours. Mine is a definite love hate relationship.