So It Goes: the technology iceberg

I was using Skype from my husband’s laptop at the time and my daughter wanted something from my emails. I went to my desk to send it from the computer there.

My daughter laughed when I did it, patiently explaining as though to a two-year-old that I could access my emails from any computer anywhere.  Well of course I know that, but getting them from mine is so much easier.  I have those saved bookmarks and all I have to do is press one of them and things magically appear.  Things appear so quickly and magically in fact, that I no longer have to use passwords  – a lucky occurrence given the fact that most have been forgotten (please refer to earlier column).  

The sad thing is that I was listening recently to the radio where people were phoning in with funny stories about parents and grandparents etcetera (aka me) who only use 40 per cent of their technological capacity.  I call this the iceberg approach.

Forty per cent seems a lot to me and I would hazard a guess that my usage is considerably less.. The announcers were having a good old chuckle about messages left on mobile phones where Gran is asking if “anybody is there” and for them to pick up if they can hear her.  There were also calls about people introducing themselves on a mobile with their names in clear view.  The callers were talking about a parents mainly, and that parent could have been me.

I not only say my name ( Linda Muller) to my children, but I forget to say ‘Mum’.  They reckon they know it’s me if I say nothing at all.

I also lug around a significant sized diary.  And while my children pop their appointments into their phone I remove the heavy tomb from my handbag and scribble things down there.  I may not have an alarm or anything, but I do check it daily and I am probably better at remembering those things than they are (score to me).

As for the rest of it, I have successfully stuck my head in the sand.  I would guess that more than 60 per cent is buried, but at least I miss the hilarity as my children and young friends scroll down their phones and walk right on by.