Aging in the Age of Technology!

I got a new phone yesterday, something for which I was much overdue!

Suffice it to say that my previous phone was what you'd technically call a "smartphone" but it was pretty much the first generation after flip phones and while it has served me well it was getting hopelessly inadequate in terms of memory, and increasingly unable to run current apps.

Since Mrs. Denmarkguy administrates our mobile service — she has a long-standing "thing" with T-Mobile — she managed to find a deal where I could get a new phone for free as long as we agreed to stay with our current service for another 24 months... which suits me just fine.

I'm not all that much into change.

Unlike most people — I suppose — I don't typically use my phone for anything much more than making phone calls, occasional texting, and using the camera from time to time to take some of the pictures that illustrate a number of my posts. Although... I often use my 35mm digital camera for that.

While I'm definitely happy with my new phone so far, the out-of-box experience — and getting my stuff transferred from my old phone to the new one — effectively showed me that I am somebody who moved to "technology land" and learned the "language" as an adult as opposed to somebody who was born into the technological age.

There was a whole part of the process that required me to sit down and watch several YouTube tutorials, and it left me feeling pretty certain that anybody under the age of 30 is pretty much born with their DNA automatically knowing how to do these things.

Just consider something so simple as putting the protective case on the outside of the phone. Last time I did that you simply stretched the soft parts of the case around the corners and it was there. It took me quite a while to figure out that you actually first had to pry the protective outer layer off the phone case and then take the inner hard case apart to put the phone in it and then reassemble the whole thing!

So my comment about DNA and being a "technological native" mostly arises out of the fact that there were no written instructions with the case or with the phone on how to do any of these things... as if it was simply assumed that you automatically know how to do these things when the piece of technology comes out of the box.

So that was just one of several moments where I found myself thinking "wow, I'm too old for this," and then reflecting on the fact that our 16 year old grandson could probably do this in his sleep while blindfolded in the dark with one hand tied behind his back.

While I'm definitely not a Luddite, this whole process made me feel like one.

This coming from someone who was among the first quarter million people to have Internet access and an email account!

'Nuff said!

The most exciting thing about the end result, however, is the fact that I once again have a phone that allows me to do *voice-to-text." In some ways it's actually the feature I use most on my phone because I simply cannot abide typing on those tiny keyboards that are excessively sensitive and cause me to type more typos than actual words!

Something about the voice-to-text feature on my old phone "broke" more than a year ago, and I realize now that it severely hampered the amount of utility I got from the phone.

As a writer, I use my phone as a sort of "notepad" when I am out and about, and an idea for an article or blog post suddenly pops into my head. Thanks to my scattered brain, I seldom have creative ideas on command when I sit down in front of a blank page... they almost always come when I am doing something completely different.

So... it's certainly nice to have that back!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

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Created at 2026.01.30 20:12 PST
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