“Life was much easier when apple and blackberry were just fruits.” — Ray Bradbury
First, let me share some background. I’m a baby boomer, a couple of days shy of my 72nd birthday. Let me begin, “Aging isn’t for sissies,” yet I’m grateful to be above ground. Hopefully, this information should provide some perspective on why I’m a late adopter and my love/hate relationship with technology.
Note: This essay and reminiscence was written in response to a prompt for my virtual Door County LGBTQ+ writer’s group, Write On. What makes it more interesting — in the past — I’ve repurposed existing Mixed Metaphor’s Oh, My! essays in response to prompts. This time, I’m reposting it on my blog after sharing during this month’s writer’s group.
My earliest memories featured the technology of the mid-1950’s. While the
first home I remember was a rental, and the iceman still delivered ice for the icebox, my parents were early adopters of their first television in 1955, a small black and white screen in a wooden cabinet with a fabric-covered speaker. I’d sit watching my favorite shows, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Sky King, and soon Garfield Goose, Kukla Fran & Ollie, The Howdy Doody Show, Captain Kangaroo, Ding Dong School, and Romper Room. Literally, you get the picture and it explains a lot on how I became the person I am today.
Our phone had a rotary dial and probably weighed at least 5 pounds or more, and we were a ‘party-line’ household, sharing phone service with neighbors. The first car my parent’s owned was a cream and bronze two-tone, four-door, 1956 Chevy Bel-Air. I wish I possessed that car today, not only for its classic 1950’s styling, but for the simplicity of its operation.
1956 Chevy Bel-Air
This phone still hangs on the wall of my father’s home.
When in middle school, in the early 1960’s, I made a decision which I would later regret. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to choose typing as an elective course. I was already aware that as a young woman, my future career options, besides housewife and mother, featured clerical or secretarial work. I was not interested, I focused on academics and the arts instead. I regretted this decision when I chose journalism as my undergraduate college major.
My early working career was babysitting and ‘slinging hash’ (I couldn’t resist), physical labor aided by a minimum of technology support. Following my interrupted college education in the late sixties and early seventies, I spent more time in the streets as an anti-war and civil rights activist, and as a member of communal hippie households. Later, I married and got my first full-time gig. Again, physical labor aided by a minimum of technology. There were machines and tools which I used at my job at Jockey International in Kenosha and a few years later when I moved to Madison and dropped out of college a second time, I became a screen-printer, and for the most part, relied on my physical abilities.
Later, my communication and persuasion skills were tapped and I began my professional career in printing sales and marketing, print purchasing, later, as a publishing account manager, public relations project manager, and finally a business development manager. Now, these jobs required computer and keyboard skills, and early on I lacked both.
My first desktop work computer was an Apple IIc, and I was a slow ‘hunt and peck’ keyboarder. I was at a disadvantage. I couldn’t write as fast as I could think. As part of my early professional career training, I was mandated to take typing tutorials at more than one job.
Gradually, over time, I improved my skills and learned the various applications required for work. Besides word processing, many of my positions included Customer Relationship Management (CRM), project management, e-commerce, and employee onboarding tools.
Surprisingly, and ironically, in a number of my positions, when the organizations I worked for changed CRM tools, I was tapped as the CRM Process Champion, assisting other team members on how to use the new tools.
First cell phone. It was small and easy to use.
Early in my sales career, I would sometimes take the huge mobile phone with me when I’d travel to visit clients, so I wouldn’t miss a customer call. I acquired my first cell phone, a compact Samsung flip phone, again as a relatively late adopter in the early 2000’s. I continued with a series of 2G Samsung flip phones until AT&T would no longer support the service. After a series of discounted offers, they finally gave me my first free Samsung Android Smartphone in 2016. For a number of years, I refused to text, first due to carpal tunnel in my hands, and later because I couldn’t edit them. It took me a while to learn how to answer and make a call, delete emails, download (or delete) apps, and the list goes on. I still possess that almost six-year-old cell technology and I must confess, I’m reticent to learn how to use a newer more robust phone. I can barely take a decent photo with my current phone and then I don’t know what do with it!
I didn’t possess a home computer until I left my committed relationship in 2008 when I purchased my first laptop. I used my partner’s desktop, yet still journaled and wrote by hand. Soon, I learned how word processing enabled me to quickly spellcheck and edit, cut and paste, and the list goes on. My journals transitioned online and so did all of my creative writing.
I still consider myself a late adopter of technology and sometimes I take baby steps to incorporate a new tool in my life. I created a Twitter account that I don’t use, I’ve not used Instagram, What’s Up, Snap Chat, Tik Tok, dating and hookup apps (you can stop laughing now), and the list goes on.
I’m a daily user of social media, primarily Facebook, both personally and professionally, for ten years, however many younger people and others have abandoned it because of its business practices and algorithms. I’ve been blogging as a WordPress user for almost eight years, and have used Slack to manage my creative and production team for my web series Hotel Bar.
Now, before I end this essay, I want to rant a little about the gender bias in technology. Apologies in advance to my male-identified friends and colleagues who are not guilty of these behaviors, though this has been my firsthand experience on the job and sometimes in my personal life as well, encounters with mansplainers.
For the organization where I previously worked for 12 years, as I neared the end of my working career I transitioned to part-time and held an administrative support position. Some of my duties included sales analysis and internet lead management. I was also the system administrator for several of our web-based tools. Yes, it surprised me too!
Though due to my age and educational background, I admit to being a late adopter of technology, yet full disclosure, over the years I’ve learned and mastered skills in the workplace that some days even surprise me. In this particular work situation, my male coworker enlisted my help to solve his problem. It’s my job to do so, and I was eager to deliver on the mission.
For the next 15 minutes, because he was frustrated, he continued to talk over me, interrupt, assert that he knew the solution if only I would listen, and when I tried to remind him that I was there to help and had the tools and ability to do so, he then focused on the frustration in my voice and proceeded to berate me, finally stating he would find a male colleague more experienced to help him with his problem. Oh my!
To reinforce that this was not an isolated incident, I followed up with another male manager as I was leaving work that day. Earlier in the week, he had enlisted my help. I spent time investigating his problem, identified a solution, drafted a thorough process for resolving the problem which required a couple of action steps on his part. When I asked if he was successful, he indicated that he didn’t follow my recommendations and again wondered aloud if there was someone else who could help him and dismissed me from his office because he was too busy to talk with me and questioned my ability to do my job. It was the end of the work week and as I left, I had one more job to do — I needed to let go of the toxic treatment I received.
At the end of the day, and most likely at the end of my life, I will continue to experience a love/hate relationship with technology. The other day, I stopped in Panera to carryout lunch. There were no people taking orders, only kiosks. A woman who appeared older than me, with cane in hand, shook her head and walked out. I attempted to use the kiosk. The two items, my first and second choices, were sold out, so in the end I walked out too. I refuse to use self-checkouts at the grocery store and self-check-ins at the clinic.
Yes, I’ve apparently become a curmudgeon, and I must admit as a reminiscence writer, I often regale stories with the theme, “Remember when life was simple.” On the flip side, I’m a lifelong learner.
I need to go now. I have homework to do today before I return to work tomorrow.
Related Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!
Three Things I Don’t Need (Or, Want)
70 Is NOT the New 60, It’s 70!