Poor little laptop has been in hospital this week.
It picked up a nasty virus, from where I do not know, and had to go to the people who know all about these things.
It was interesting to see how attached one is to the internet world, and to realise how often during a day I check for messages etc. Very few of which are important.
I don't do social media, unless a Blog counts as that? But Facebook, Twitter and any others dont figure in my life. My phone is a very basic model.
Do I need cyber?
The problem is that so many more areas of life are now almost totally connected to the internet. To have my Covid injection I am bossily told to 'go on line' to book it. To choose my tulip bulbs I am told to check the varieties 'on line'. To sort out a problem with a Bank it's the same.
Does no one realise that there must be hundreds of people who are not computer literate for all sorts of reasons?
What I would miss is the contact with nice people that I have got to 'know' in the Blogging world. I might miss the ability to order something, or send a note to a friend. But I could do that without using the laptop.
What do you think? Are we being overtaken by the cyber world?
PS. I loved hearing about your cups/mugs stories. Thank you.
14 comments:
I'm old enough to remember neighbours coming to our house in emergencies to use our telephone, because they did not have one. And queueing to use the phone box at college to ring home on a Sunday. Today I am grateful for the instant connection of a WhatsApp call. But I am concerned for those who do not have access to the cyber world. A letter from the surgery saying'book your appointment online " is confusing for my elderly neighbour., And the one from the bank, saying this form needs to be filled in online, or" visit us in branch", when all the local banks are closed, and the nearest is 20 miles away, via two buses., And don't get me started on teaching... I was with a 15 Yr old this week, and her Mum said "how can I help her with her maths?They are not allowed to bring books home. Homework is all done online, mostly multiple choice questions"
Our next door neighbour used to come round quite often to ask us to send an email or fo something online. Their son does it for them now, as they still don't have a computer. My 95 year old father embraced home computing when it first started and can still zoom and email. But Internet banking and filling in online forms has become too much now.
I am not online a lot, but I do manage a couple of face book pages. The family tend to keep in touch via text or messenger or video call each other on their phones.
It's a good place to watch what the grandchildren are up to, only one family lives locally, so I would struggle without it.
I am so thankful for modern technology (texting, Messenger, Skype) that allows me to stay in touch with my children and grandchildren in other states. I appreciate the convenience of online ordering and bill-paying and I love the social connections of my Facebook account and blogging. I know that there are many down sides to technology, but some are easy to manage or eliminate and there are many benefits that I would not like to give up!
I know what you mean. My mom doesn't like to shop online, schedule medical appointments (or confirm) online and it's getting harder and harder. I just don't think there is any way around it these days.
Barbara, I am sorry to hear about your sick computer. I hope it's easily fixed.
Although there are downsides for sure, I am grateful for all the online things I can do, such as texting, Messaging, Facebook, Instagram, my blog. I do so much online. e.g., it's much easier to shop online and give my feet a rest, unless I need to try on shoes, well, that is a different matter. I'm glad to make all my appointments online, which means I no longer have to wait 'on hold' for ages until a real person finally picks up the phone.
Of course, I do understand that there are still many people who grew up in the pre-computer, pre-online era and can well imagine they find it hard to maneuver in this new way of the world. I am grateful that my 89-year-mom has taken the plunge and does many things online for herself now. It was a steep learning curve, but she was able to do it, thankfully.
I like the convenience of doing things online, but I still like the option of doing some things face to face, which is getting harder and harder now. The disappearance of local banks, for example, is hugely inconvenient when trying to sort out problems not covered by the 'one size fits all' help pages online and trying to upload documents that must be in a certain format and not exceed a certain size is infuriating. Give me a real human being sitting facing me rather than a chatbot/call centre in a far-flung corner of the world any day of the week.
I'm such a homebody that the internet is an important part of my days.
I would miss my blogging friends a lot if I didn't have access to the internet.
I think blogging is social media! it's certainly very sociable anyway. At work I have noticed that the older generation (which I'm joining shortly) don't always have the knowledge or confidence to pay payments by phone where I set up a payment screen at my end (they can't see) and ask them to key their card details in from their phone, there is no alternative and I think technology is moving too quickly for many of us.
I hope your poorly laptop is fully recovered now :-)
I'm not the most up to date person with technology but would miss messaging family and friends and I do use WhatsApp. Of course I would also miss all my blogging friends. We have no banks within walking distance so I do bank online although I refuse to use bank apps on my phone.
Now it is difficult to live without internet. I had to take appointments and it is only on line so better to practice ! I am not an addict but blogging and blogging friends are very important to me.
I hope your laptop recovers. I use my phone for everything not much my I pad or laptop.
I was 21 when I got online for the first time, and I'm 46 now. I had just enough time to see what the world was like without it. My daughter has never known the world pre-internet, and that's a wild thought to me. I love the conveniences of doing things online. I love learning things on Youtube. I love being able to watch whatever show or movie I want, even if it's not "on". But social media like Facebook has become sort of crazy. I tried to stay off Facebook, then I missed death announcements of two people.
looks so interesting online digitizing very pretty job
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