Journal computerlady's Journal: Luddite lugs 4
What is it with people who are proud of not using computers? "I don't do email," they smugly announce. People who can't read are ashamed for anyone to know it, but people who don't compute glibly broadcast it to the world as though it's an accomplishment.
Too many of my middle-aged and post-middle-aged friends just won't step over the threshold into the 21st century. Hell, many of them pretend the last two decades of the 20th century never happened! Cell phone? PDA? Digital camera? DVD player? Playstation? Suggest they use any of these and you'd think you'd asked them to become rocket scientists overnight.
I've totally had it with these Luddites! Twice in the last 2 months, I've lost it publicly when "mature" women friends gleefully informed me that they don't have email addresses.
They remind me of my late mother and late mother-in-law. These ladies came of age during the 30s and 40s. To the everlasting mortification of their children and grandchildren, they never learned to drive. "My mother doesn't drive," I'd mumble as I begged for a ride home from someone else's mother.
The person who doesn't "do email" is the modern equivalent of the non-driver of the 1960s! An anomaly, a relic, an incomprehensible throwback to the dark ages who is a bit of a source of shame for her family. What are they thinking? Do they think they are too stupid to learn? Do they think the rest of the world should just accommodate their insistence on the old ways? Do they imagine the world should have hit the 'pause' button on technology back in 1980?
I just don't get it. My husband and I are in our mid-50s but life is still awfully busy. We both still work; we live in different cities from one another during the work week; we travel; we belong to organizations; we volunteer in our communities. Our twenty-something daughters live in different time zones and have even busier lives than ours. How could we communicate without email???? Synchronous communication is out of the question. We each have maybe 1-2 hours a day that's not scheduled, and it's not likely any two of us have the same unscheduled time on any given day. Thank God for email!
Ladies, get an email address or forget about that recipe you asked me for. You're not too old to use a computer; you're too old because you don't use a computer.
Well I can't live without email... (Score:2)
Of course I am planning on getting one as soon as high speed, reasonable cost net access is available - but then I won't let anyone other than my wife (and maybe my kids) know the number
Re:Well I can't live without email... (Score:1)
You learned the hard way - the trick with cell phones is not to give anyone the number! It also works to keep it turned off unless you need to use it.
Also, if the number leaks, turn the phone in and switch to a different carrier.
Thanks for reading my journal. I don't feel quite so alone. I haven't figured out yet how to browse other folks' journals. What brought you here? And take a look at the new entry and stay turned for tomorrow's piece on "Transcendental Karma."
wonderful things to do your time (Score:1)
Since some people don't compute, it means they must be having some other experience that you aren't...they might even have something to share that you could learn from.
While there's no need for them to smug about it, there's not need to be ashamed, embarrassed or put down about it either. It's just one of many useful things to do with yourself.
Re:wonderful things to do your time (Score:1)
There are a lot of wonderful things to do with your time. Only one of them is "sit in front of the computer".
That's absolutly true. Just as there were lots of wonderful things for my mom to do with her time besides drive herself and her kids where they needed to go.
But eventually it got to be a real problem. It ended up wasting other people's time. Somebody else's mother had to drive out of her way to take me home. Someone else had to go to the pharmacy to pick up medicine for us. And on and on.