Can We Pause Technology So I Can Catch Up?
I am technology challenged. I am computer challenged. I am cell phone challenged. Heck, I am pretty much anything that was made after 1980 challenged. It is a complete wonder that I even started a blog and have figured out as much as I have. Seriously.
I finally saw my first ipod the other day. Ok, it wasn’t my ipod as I don’t have have one, but there was one in a store and a friend told me what it was. I just thought it was a little rectangle thing with cords. I miss ghetto blasters (sigh), walkmans that played tapes, and cell phones that were easy to figure out (big sigh). I don’t play games on my cell phone and didn’t even know my cell had games until the other day. A day my kids won’t soon forget.
On that fateful day (for my kids, at least), I opened the cell phone bill and it was $100 over what it should have been. I immediately called the phone company to let them know they had made a mistake and could they please correct it.
The lady on the phone told me there was no mistake, but since I had downloaded some games to my phone, the total was about an extra $100. I was floored and told her I didn’t know my cell phone even had games and there was no way on earth that I would ever figure out how to download them.
Little miss cell phone bill lady then said, “Well, Ma’am, it clearly shows on the bill that you, or someone who had access to your phone, has downloaded several games - about $100 worth.” This wasn’t making sense to me as I don’t know how to download and I live with a 7 and 9 year old. It never crossed my mind that they could be so hightech that they could figure that out; it had to be wrong. I told her, “No one has access to my phone besides me, except my 7 and 9 year olds, and I highly doubt a 7 and 9 year old could figure out how to download games.” Uh-huh. I knew what was up and I was going to let her know. The mistake had to be on their end, it just had to.
I turned around and my kids happened to be standing there listening. I told the lady to hold on just a second while I asked my kids. “Ummmm, kids? Do you happen to know anything about some games on mommy’s cell phone?” I knew the cell phone bill lady was listening; I wanted her to hear how the phone company had made a mistake and that my kids knew nothing about this.
My little one, the 7 year old, proudly blurted out nice and loudly for all to hear, “Sure, mommy, we download them all the time. I even downloaded one today!” She was smiling. Smiling! How could she? “Downloads all the time?” Where did she learn to do that? I heard nothing but silence on the other end of the phone and then a muffled sound; I think the cell phone bill lady was covering the receiver so I couldn’t hear her laughing.
Ugggg. My 7 and 9 year olds have been downloading games and I didn’t even know that that was possible. Those two got the lecture of their lifetime and it is still going on, it probably will for the next few years. Sometimes I think I belong in the can-on-a-string generation. I want technology to stop, or at least pause for a bit, so I can catch up.
(c) 2007 Cindy Breninger All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
I like to write about my kids, things I feel strongly about, or things that I find interesting, and I hope you do too. My stories are pretty random with very little rhyme or reason as to subject matter. I have a ton of stories just waiting to get out. http://www.adayinthelifeofcindy.blogspot.com
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