Letter from the editor
Born in the Thirties’, my parents grew up in a completely different world; a time when wall phones and indoor plumbing was considered new-age. So when my Dad recently declared he wanted a smartphone, you can imagine my surprise.
Don’t get me wrong, Dad is a smart man and has always kept up with the times. He believes Alexa is the best thing since sliced bread. “Alexa, play Johnny Cash,” he commands. Then adds, “Louder!” Soon after, my mom tells Alexa to shut up. Dad has a Facebook account and is “in the know” about all his kids and 9 grandchildren. He often tells me who is doing what, confirming it is true, because he saw it on Facebook.
Still, I wasn’t certain a smartphone was the right match for him. It’s small screen makes it difficult to touch exactly the right spot. And there are so many application buttons that redirect you to endless destinations. The visual clutter can be frustrating for anyone.
“How about a flip phone Dad?” I suggested. “No, no…it must have GPS ” he responded. “Because I need it to talk to me while driving. You know, give me directions.” He had a good point. So, I went to the phone store and shortly afterwards, presented him with an android smartphone.
After setting it up, we hit some road bumps to say the least. I showed him how to hit the microphone on Google and say where he wanted to go, hit the “directions” and “start” button. Everything went well, EXCEPT he didn’t specify the state. Google maps began sending him to a street with the same name… in Arkansas! “Why do I have to get on the highway to go home?” Ooops! “This smart phone isn’t too bright!” he exclaimed.
Then came the pop-ups, notifications and endless updates. Three days in, and he said he was ready to throw the phone off the nearest bridge.
When he came over for lunch a few days later, I went into his phone settings to eliminate as much of the “clutter” as possible. Dad had no desire to play Candy Crush, shop on Amazon or use MOST what was on his phone. I know my Dad is not the only one facing these types of issues.
Information overload is the world we live in!
It’s like a creature (from the black lagoon) that has been growing in the “cloud” since the internet’s beginnings. The bigger it gets, the more information there is. The flood of information that comes at me daily, via my phone, seems to produce more pain than gain. It’s like an incoming tidal wave of e-mails, texts, and social media feeds. A vast ocean of information, I feel compelled to view in order to keep up with my life.
Everything is at our fingertips. Our phones have become the remote control for our lives. On one hand, I love it! Everything is easier and quicker. We can find out anything quickly. The dilemma though is we are getting TOO much information and we have to spend all the time we saved ourselves, weeding through it to try to determine what is really useful.
Sometimes it’s hard to know which app or information to believe. Bob and I ran into that dilemma recently when we went on a road trip to Rowan University. I plugged in the address to Google and it directed us in a way that didn’t align with Bob’s knowledge of the route to Glassboro. We debated, (okay, argued in the car) and it turned out Google was right. The event address was at a satellite campus. Sometimes it’s hard to put all our faith in technology. We have all heard the horror stories or experienced some GPS fails of our own, especially in the early years when it was still evolving.
Love it or hate it, technology and an abundance of information is here to stay. Picking and choosing the information is the key.
Ultimately my Dad will master Google Maps. I hope he does not ask about Tic Tok. If he does, I’ll need to ask my kids.
Peace & Love,
Cindy
