Keeping up with Technology

Yup. Me. Although Dropbox isn't that terrible.

p.s. - Reading below: According to my son (who pretty much knows what he's talking about), "the cloud" is nothing new -- it's just a gimmicky marketing term for "the internet," and we all know what that is. ;)

Change is always hard. My husband works in IT and web programming, so he and his colleagues are pretty "tech-y". Therefore, we always have the newest gadgets and he is happy to set them up or troubleshoot. If it weren't for him, I am certain I would have a basic tv and dvd player...and that is it. But he pushes me along. His employer buys them new phones and computers every few years and I often get the "old" ones. Or my hubby will happily buy me the newest gadgets and help me use them just because that is fun for him. So I am forced to keep up :) And I DO enjoy the advances...so long as I have someone at my beck and call to help me troubleshoot.
I do hear ya. But try not to be completely closed to it at all costs. If you have a patient friend or family member that can help you, technology can be wonderful. I LOVE that texting rather than phone calls is the new normal. I love that the internet makes it so you can learn ANYTHING- it has been so helpful with my kiddos math homework, I have learned how to crochet off You-Tube, etc. Pinterest makes parenting, cooking, gift-giving, etc. a lot easier in a lot of ways. Christmas shopping online...OH MY! How wonderful! Lots of great things ;)

I'm down to just one last teenager in the house. When she goes off to college like the other two, that's likely where my tech growth will come to an end. I've had to keep up with it to keep up with them.

So 20 years from now when the young people are teleporting themselves around or communicating via telepathy, I'll still be tapping away on my dinosaur iPhone. Shameful.

:)

Rhonda,

I realize the "Cloud" has been around for a long time (any time you store information anywhere else than your machine...it's "cloud" saved...it's just been hyped over the last 5 years...)

Are you saying that every time something new comes out, you want to get it or learn it or feel compelled to learn it? Wait - sorry...you are saying that you are "afraid" of technology? There are times when I wish something would stay current for more than 4 months...but there's always seems to be something new on the horizon...bigger (or smaller with technology), better, faster....I don't feel the need to change or keep up...

I don't have an iPad, iPhone or blackberry. I do have a Droid/smart phone...I have a Kindle but don't use it all the time...I still prefer to books...

I don't use Dropbox...I know there are people who really like it.

When I married my husband, I sighed with relief: he's a techie, and I never, ever had to worry about fixing my damn computer! I have no interest in technology, unless it serves some very specific purpose for me. I got an iphone, for instance, just to get email on the go. I love email. I've been online for 18 years. But I like old school. Please do not send me a TM. Call me, or email me.

I try to avoid it all, and the more I avoid it, the older I feel. I get it now.

We recently got my 76 year old mom an Iphone (free refurbs on black friday). My 78 year old EE dad got one too, but my mom is funny. My dad put games on it, so my mom sits around playing bridge on her phone. She thinks it's the best thing in the world, and she just kept saying," i don't need a smart phone, what am I going to do with that?!"

You realize, of course, that if we avoid technology, we will end up like my grandmother who couldn't for the life of her figure out how to turn on our TV? And this was over 20 years ago, when the remotes were easy!

I'm beginning to understand why my Mom (she's 78) will have absolutely NOTHING to do with the internet.
She's turned her back on it completely and doesn't care.
I try to keep up with a few things but sometimes it's a losing battle.
I just want to retire and play Warcraft for the rest of my life.

yes I get so confused with all this technology stuff, and all the different ways that the kids are on social media. What the heck is Dropbox? Guess I will have to look it up. And I wish I could help my kids with their homework too!!

I'm not an early adopter. I often wait until I have to use something to try it (eg, work collaboration made me sign up for Dropbox and a volunteer group uses Google docs. Only got a smart phone because I broke my non-smart phone, and we had an old iPhone lying around the house and I could just put my sim card in it). But then - once I try something new, I wonder how I lived without it!

Dropbox - I got my whole family to join to share pictures.
iPhone - I can text with my nieces, and my kids can Facetime with them (my nieces have iPods). How fun!
Google Docs - I can send out a survey to the other members of a group I volunteer in to coordinate activities and it collates all the responses into a spreadsheet, so I don't have to go through a bunch of individual email responses. Major time saver!

Every time I think - why didn't I learn this sooner?

The only exception so far is Twitter. I just don't understand the appeal. But, whatever.

Well, Dropbox has been around for some time now. I'm more of a Google Drive person. If you wanna get your head spinning, look up "the cloud".
I love technology. Things aren't going to go backwards. So my philosophy is "If you can't beat it, join it." :)

I've always been a sci fi fanatic so, no, I don't wish it would stop. I'm thrilled! Why avoid the future? Sounds counterintuitive to me.

Considering one of my degrees is in ITM I love it!

I imagine when computers, email, and the original cell phones started coming out, people felt overwhelmed keeping up with that technology too. (Just not as many people. Lol.)

Personally, I LOVE the technological advances. These advances have opened up so many opportunities for so many people. I am able to stay connected to people on the other side of the country without having to pay out the hiney in postage and long distance charges. The business world has advanced as these technologies grow. As the technology we use grows, so do those in other sectors of our world, including life saving medical detection and treatment technologies, space exploration, and the overall understanding of our world. It's great!

So, while I myself don't keep up with technology much, I am extremely grateful for the technologies that I do use, and am very excited to see what the future holds. After all, I only have to use what I want to. I am happy with my simple little phone that can barely access the internet... But I am glad that there are super fancy phones out there, that drive the demand (and price) for the phone I am happy with down. :)

:)

Hi there. I agree with mamaduck-"the cloud" overwhelms me or maybe, for me, it's operator error:) I figure that I have been living without google drive and dropbox, why do I need them. Then, my jump drive crashed and burned and thank goodness I had saved most of my documents to my computer but lost some. That's when I learned about google drive. It's free and I didn't need to go out and buy an external hard drive right away. Then, dropbox came in handy when realizing pictures on an ipad can take up a lot of space. So I started moving pictures back and forth and it worked. My point, you can live without them, however, slowly, I started to realize it actually is making my life easier. It's all preference, unless your workplace is pushing you to use a certain program/app. Then, usually you have some support (or at least I do-whew).

I just wish I had more time to master it all because I know that there are so many benefits and features to things that would make my life easier but I don't have time to really dig in and learn things other than the one or two uses that require that I learn something new.

I use a ton of technology in my day job but feel like I'm just skimming the surface of most of the systems we use (I would estimate that I use 12 - 20 systems or tools a day) and use maybe 10% of the features of most of them.

Then there's my second job as a tutor, where we use DropBox and GoogleDrive and our company's website and WebEx to share documents, teach virtual classes, track our assignments and pay, etc.

Then there's my PTA work, where we use a shared e-mail, google drive (soon to be DropBox because not everyone is on gmail), PayPal, an accounting portal and on-line store and online banking.

Then there's the academic portal for tracking grades for my older kids, plus the fact that their teachers use the portal, Google drives, Moodle and TeacherWeb to store documents.

Oh and a website for each sports team...and a website for each of the three schools...and my own on-line banking and Cozi (e-calendar).

It all makes my head spin - I know that it's usually good stuff and that I'll learn it pretty quickly, but every time I get introduced to yet another new tool or technology, my first response is "oh no, really?"

I can't even begin to tell you how I keep track of all the passwords...my PW codes are stashed everywhere :-)

My last job was in a call center where I used 2 monitors and used 20+ different applications/websites at a time. Doing it gives you a much bigger appreciation for others who do so. I do not "go off" when I call businesses-but know who to ask for to have the problem resolved.
I recieved an iPad as a graduation gift in 2010. I never would have bought one myself-but quickly learned to love it. I let the kids use it if they choose during screen time. I'm also a full time student-so they see me use the computer quite a bit and I let yhem use it for school websites.
I'm actually glad that my kids are somewhat tech savvy. My daughter was the only kid that came to kidnergarten knowing how to spell her full name thanks to abcmouse.com.
I do regret that I now get more responses if create an event on Facebook than if I write out invitations and mail them. I think it's sad also that some kids are not limited on their screen time. It's a tool-not a sitter.
My aunt who recently retired said that she "had" to get a smart phone because no one answers their phone anymore-she has to text and send picture messages. She still refuses to Facebook, though-lol.

You're not required to "adopt" every new piece of technology out there, no matter how hyped up it is. If you don't like it, just leave it alone. I have no interest (intrst?) whatsoever in Twitter, now matter how fantabulous everyone else thinks it is. That said, I've found Dropbox to be pretty useful. It's a way to send someone a file (aka a Word document or something) without it being an email attachment. It's not glitzy or exciting; it's a useful thing for (my) work. But if you don't need it, why use it? Just let it do its thing, out there in the universe, without your help. That's fine.

I don't care to keep up with technology honestly.