Keeping pace with change //Al ritmo de los cambios

I start by saying that I am over 60 years old and with admiration I have lived through many of the transformations.

As a very young child I watched my grandmother cook and iron with charcoal, then my mother cooked with bright light, the smell affected my younger sister and with a medical certificate they were able to get gas.

Pressure cookers began to arrive and later electric cookers, that saved time, as well as dishwashers, of course they use more water and in Cuba it is a luxury. Don't laugh, but nowadays we are losing our domestic appliances, 🥲 because of the fuel situation we are going back to the coal era. I'm serious, but that's another topic.

I prefer to talk about the advances in communications. In 1978, when I entered university, computers were enormous, with many huge circuit boards. Today they are smaller, more powerful, and you can store information on memory cards and hard drives, and be in contact with the world through a screen.

And now, the real challenges arise, like what to do for those of us who were born and raised without the internet.

At first, I was afraid to touch the keyboard, 🤣, but little by little I learned, and, my friends, you realize that it makes work much easier and allows you to optimize time and quality. Of course, at least for me, it takes time, and there are many things I can't or don't want to do because it stresses me out.

I have to thank all the young people around me, from my children to the guys at work, who are always willing to teach, and I'm always ready to learn and help my less tech-savvy peers.

In Cuba, the widespread use of the internet arrived late, and due to issues with equipment, connectivity, and so on, the benefits of technology can be a huge problem.

Let me explain: we don't have enough ATMs, so there are enormous lines to use them.

They might be out of stock or broken, and on top of that, the lack of power means you can't access them when you need to. It's the same with e-commerce. It's easy and very functional; you don't have to carry cash.

However, the same thing happens if you don't have a connection or if there are technical problems: the money is deducted from your account, but it doesn't reach the seller… These are problems that affect everyone, but older people suffer the most because we have fewer skills.