Pat Edwards
It seems as though my time, this past week, has been taken up with being on hold on the phone or trying to figure out why something isn’t working on my computer.
Don’t get me wrong … I am not a tech-newby. I got my first computer in 1984 and taught myself WordPerfect Jr. in order to begin recording the research Nancy O’Hearn, Marna Hing and I had begun gathering for our book on the history of Lorane. By the time it was finished, I had graduated to the full WordPerfect version and when I decided it was time to become employed again – after 20 years of being a housewife and mother … and then a storekeeper – I signed on with a temp agency and began working assignments for a week or two at a time using my WP skills.
I must admit I’ve always disliked Microsoft Word which eventually became the “go-to” word processing program. Because of my skills, I was offered a job at the University of Oregon. While at the UO, I was introduced to email as well as communicating electronically with scientists all over the world and sending million-dollar grant applications electronically to NIH and NSF.
I’ve learned since then how to work with other programs like Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe Acrobat and others needed to produce professional-quality books and documents. For a long time I have been able to do most anything that I want in the areas of my interest.
What sets me off, however, are the constant “upgrades” to these programs. I’m told that I need to learn new things that I’ll never use and new ways of doing things that I have always been comfortable with. I hated it when I was forced to upgrade to Windows 10 from 7.
I really liked Windows 7. (Can’t they let us continue with the ones we want without being forced to upgrade?)
The phones are even worse. Our daughters decided a couple of weeks ago that Jim and I needed new phones. Jim’s was chipped, but mine was working fine. Neither of us text; I don’t livestream or FaceTime; I’ve never signed on with Instagram or Snapchat.
All I want in a phone is to be able to send and receive calls, check email and Facebook, look up something on the web occasionally and sometimes play a game of solitaire. Jim’s needs are even simpler, thank goodness, but because he’s not able to keep track of passwords and is always getting locked out, guess who has to deal with those lockouts?
Trying to get tech help or even to ask a simple question about why something is not working on our phones or my computer is almost as painful as having a tooth pulled. We took our new phones into Verizon the other day to have them transfer the contents of our old phones to the new ones … except now, we have to do it ourselves while they wait on other customers. Just getting to see a tech took a 40-minute wait. Once “everything” was transferred, and we took them home, we discovered that we still needed to load missing apps and get them working again. Thank goodness, our grandson is extremely knowledgeable along these lines, but he is also very busy, so what I was not able to figure out from his instructions over the phone, I had to figure out for myself … not an easy task for someone who feels like she’s being left behind a little more each day … Sigh.
Website: allthingslorane.com
