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I’m Susan and I am Techno
Challenged
Swear to god, two more clicks and my new i-Phone will be able to
do my laundry and cook dinner.
Don’t think I know how to use it,
though. No way. But I’m slowly learning. In fact, I jumped like
I’d been shot when the thing started talking to me one day. I
had inadvertently pressed “voice control” and the thing asked me
who I wanted to call or e-mail. And then, but I’m not exactly
sure, it asked me out. Flirtatious and capricious little hot
pink thing (well it’s white with a scintillating cover).
All this babble about high tech
and low touch, or vice versa, has me reeling. I don’t care how
many twits twitter and text, smear their faces and lives all
over Face Book and broadcast to the world a daily chronology of
every boring and gross thing about their lives. People still
need to touch in person. To hug or climb a tree. To write a
letter long hand on pretty stationery and plaster it with
stick-on characters (it’s so tactile to rip open a letter, run
your fingers over the embossing, smell the paper).
I spend a lot of time in front of
the computer doing business so I’m damned sure I don’t want to
use it to play games. It’s much more fun to play Chutes and
Ladders on a board or Scrabble, where players can giggle and
punch each other and stand on their heads while they wait for
their partner to make his/her next move.
Peter Burwash, CEO of the largest
tennis management company in the world, actually declares “no
techno toys” days for his employees. The guy is way ahead of the
curve, so you can’t call him techno impaired. Why, he flies
270,000 miles a year coordinating meetings with Fortune 500
friends (Rupert Murdoch among them) while using every techno
device conceivable.
But he knows when enough is
enough, goldarnit!
A visionary, the guy sees himself
at the bottom of the company’s triangle, with employees at the
top. And he’s never fired one.
How could this be, you argue?
Well, he uses one of the smartest tools in the business basket:
mentoring. He and the other staff help the person solve his/her
problem and to re-join the family.
Anyway, that’s my rant while I
suffer grievously from a laptop that is getting ready to take a
dirt nap. Yup, it’s injecting things I never asked it to, having
extended mental pauses and hot flashes.
Gotta send it back to Toshiba and
pray that the surgery is a success.
Meanwhile, I’ll have time to read
a good book, write some long letters and take a walk on the
beach . . .
P.S. Wonder how people reacted to
the invention of the light bulb, horseless carriage or
telephone? Most likely: “Karn Sarn gadgets!!!”
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