What would you like to be?

If you ask a young child " what would you like to be?", you may hear a princess, a fireman, a doctor or a train engineer. Ask an adult, you may quickly hear "thinner" ( of course!), "richer" ( that goes without saying for most of us), or "healthier" ( right there with you). Right now, I would like to be more tech savvy.

There was a time when I felt cutting edge back in the early eighties. I free-lanced helping small businesses set up their offices to use PCs. Then I helped set up our local elementary schools first computer lab. We taught the teachers, then kids in kindergarten through grade five. The school had invested in over ninety educational programs that made learning fun. The teachers were intimidated. The kids took to it like ducks to water. I started a new career in interior design, and suddenly became behind the times in the tech world. Technology developed at warp speed while I was helping with homework, baking brownies and caught up in running two businesses from home. Times have certainly changed and a whole new world has opened up.

Now if you purchase an I Pad, it doesn't even come with a book to turn it on! There is a tutorial program on it if you can figure out how to turn it on to find it. They assume you know, duh! Kids know. They have no fear in picking up a new electronic device and pushing buttons to see what happens. I have seen parents hand their smart phones to three year olds to play games. To kids, the Cloud has nothing to do with weather or seating in heaven and tablets do not come in bottles. They learn the alphabet as A is for app, B is for Bing.....

Brand names have now become verbs. For instance, "just photoshop it." Aha, that is how to look thinner and painlessly younger! If that is a priority, DO NOT EVER USE SKYPE OR FACETIME! The wrinkles show up in high definition unless you sit eight feet away. Aging is not graceful on SKYPE. Back in the 60's, there was a cartoon called The Jetsons that featured all these futuristic cool things like SKYPE. Our future has arrived. We are connected world wide right in our own home. We are a global community.

These days I wonder how I ever managed without my I pad. But, I know I only use a fraction of its capabilities. The local Apple store has classes but offers them randomly and you have to register online even though you are standing in the store at that moment. I finally downloaded an I Book tutorial for I Pad that explains a lot. Good thing I did because my mother has recently purchased an I pad and has threatened to throw the thing in the pool. She accidentally touches the screen and the page changes. Each week she learns something new and now enjoys watching video clips of her great grandson two thousand miles away. Progress!

Besides having world wide research capabilities, I love the GPS app. You are here. Comforting words when you are lost. I also love the I books and Kindle app. Now I can buy new books in the middle of the night ( insomnia comes with age too) and read for hours with no eyestrain. Since joining the bifocal generation, adjusting the font size is liberating. Sure beats using a magnifying glass.

Yes, I want to be tech savvy. Next on the agenda is web design and customizing my blog. I may just hire a tutor from the local high school.