Smart Phone, Dumb User

Arlene Blackman Yolles ♦ August 26, 2019 ♦ 5 Comments

You can skip this paragraph; I’m going to brag a bit. I’m a smart lady; I graduated 10^th in my class from a high school with 1078 graduates; in college, I graduated Cum Laude and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Math Education.  I have written 3 articles for the National Council of Teachers of Math magazine and given numerous workshops to math teachers at both regional and national conferences.  I still remember: how to derive the quadratic formula, Euclid’s proof that the number of primes is infinite and that Euler’s identity includes the 5 most important numbers in mathematics with 3 math operations, each occurring only once.  I also know the difference between an adverb and an adjective and how to correctly use an apostrophe.

So why am I so dumb when it comes to my Smart Phone?

Now, I know I’m not a youngster, yet as a math teacher, I started using computers in the early 1980’s and worked with spreadsheets and databases.  I taught Basic computer language to students.  I was considered one of the tech savvy teachers in my district and was called upon to give workshops to other colleagues.  I taught fifth graders to use Appleworks!

When my grandson, a recent high school graduate, visited recently, I had many questions to ask about the functioning of my phone.  He answered with patience and intelligence and best of all, got me to understand.  I now know about calendars and synching them.  I can take photos off the phone that were not visible when connected to a cable, because they are in folders.  I can close apps quicker than I did before. Simple things.  But not always intuitive.

On a recent bike ride, I hit a bump and my Samsung Galaxy J7 Crown flew out of its little mesh home in the side of my bike bag and landed on the road with oncoming cars.  For a split second, I thought “there, good riddance!”  Of course, at the last minute, I both stopped the car about to run over it, and rescued it from further damage.  I quickly texted my daughter to see if it still functioned.  (She responded asking if I were hurt, such a sweetheart!) and I knew both it and I were OK.  Takes a licking and keeps on ticking … (now, how many of my readers know where that’s from?) I should be so lucky!