Video Killed The Radio Star

TGIV...we're on the home stretch in the April A-Z Blog Challenge with today's letter. 

V is for Velocity

'the speed of something in a given direction'

Let's talk tech. I know. Not my favorite subject either, but it's here to stay and we gotta deal. 

I'm of the generation who grew up with three channels on the family television set and now here we are posing questions to a genie in a bottle and getting entire essays written in response. Technology moves at the speed of something in a given direction alright, and that direction is forward. 

I want to keep up. 

Maybe want isn't the right word. It feels more true to say I need to keep up. I'm not going to be an early adopter to whatever the next new tech thing is, but I'll get there eventually. 

The generations behind mine have grown up unafraid to use technology, they've discovered ways tech can make some of our daily tasks easier (bill pay, online shopping, and grocery delivery to name just a few), and they get excited about the next new thing on the tech horizon. An unwillingness to acknowledge this marks you as 'old'. 

Now there's nothing wrong with old (it's all of us sooner or later me included), and I realize some of the above is generalizing, but I don't want to be discounted because of this whole glob of knowledge I'm oblivious to, or that I frown upon, or that I'm constantly criticizing.  

I have grandchildren who aren't going to know a world without technology at their fingertips and I want to understand that world. I want to be able to interact with them about the things they encounter on a daily basis and if I'm not keeping up with technology I won't know what in the world they're talking about. 

There's also the social aspect to technology that I can appreciate. And sometimes hate, but I'm thinking more here of what I enjoy about online interactions. I appreciate the real life friends I'm able to keep up with online, old friends I've reconnected with, and new friends I've made in this little space right here. 

While my kids are living nearer to us now in terms of geography, that hasn't always been the case. Facetime meant we could be face to face via the screen and I think of all we would have missed without that virtual connection. 

In a completely different vein...have you noticed how much of our health care is now managed via technology? I get my lab results before my doctor's even read them, and I can track my steps, my heart rate, even my sleep via the watch on my arm. I'm sure all of this will only continue to expand in scope and capability and I want to be able to access the tools I need to navigate my own medical records and care. 

Do you play word games or Sudoku or something along those lines on your phone or computer? Work online crossword puzzles? Read books via Kindle? These are all things we used to do with pen and paper (and still do of course), but now we can enjoy them and exercise our brains while waiting for an appointment, cleaning house, or taking a walk. Too much of anything is too much, and that includes screen time, but it has its place and I want to keep up with what's new and fun.

If you don't keep up the gap just continues to grow and then feels too daunting to tackle. 

Technology doesn't mean I can't continue to make in person time count. I can still write letters to my grandchildren that are thoughtful and worth holding on to. I can read them my favorite books and teach them the board games I grew up playing. I can tell them the stories of my childhood and I can wish the world were another way. 

I can let them take me by the hand and teach me something new.