Being An Idiot In The Age of the Internet

Well, I’m not a complete idiot, but it has been challenging to learn how to work my new Android phone.  To the great amusement of my Blackberry/IPhone-wielding friends and acquaintances. 

Last week’s challenge:  how to make a capital letter.  I could not log in to my personal email account, because my password has a capital in it.  Naturally, the user manual(s) that came with the phone don’t concern themselves with such basic stuff.  They figure you must already know that kind of thing. Otherwise, you should just turn in the phone and go back to sending smoke signals. 

So I went to my friend Google, and pretty much typed in, “How do I make a capital letter on an Android keyboard?”  The answer was so simple.  You tap the shift key twice, rapidly.  But how could I have known that if someone didn’t tell me? I felt like a lot less of an idiot at that point. 

I shared this story with my Assistant Manager, who is a recent Blackberry to IPhone convert.  She sort of sheepishly admitted that she went to a website for tips about the use of the IPhone.  Then I felt like a LOT less of an idiot. That’s one of the things I like least about the whole technology thing. The frontrunners are so frigging smug about it. 

So today’s challenge was downloading Kindle for PC, which is free.  Of course you have to buy the books for it, which is against my religion.  I’m trying to figure out whether or not I can stand a “real” Kindle, because I don’t like reading things on a computer screen.  But I do that because of the weight issue.  I have absolutely killed my shoulders by carrying an oversized bag which usually contains at least one (!) hardback library book.  I’ve tried to let my shoulders rest and then resume my same MO.  Guess what?  That doesn’t work.  Within 24 hours I am right back where I started.  In pain. 

I’ve had to face it:  I’ve done permanent damage to my shoulders.  And I’ve had to face the fact that I am too small to carry 2o pounds or so around on a regular basis.  And that just pisses me off.  I still carry a (smaller) bag, but only from the car to the office and back.  The new smaller bag at least does not set off the warning light in the car, which says “Airbag not on!”  That’s to tell you that if you have a child in the passenger seat, they don’t weigh enough and should be in the back seat.

Next week’s challenge:  learn to use the camera in the phone.  And learn to transfer them to the computer.  The camera in the phone is damn close to my actual digital camera, which has 14-something pixels, and the phone camera has 11-something.  Fun stuff! 

Also…P.S. I love my Bluetooth!  Who would ever have guessed?