I Turned Into an Old Person

[5thGenTexan]

I was always making fun of my grandmother for not even trying to try some new fangled thing, like a cell phone or a computer. I think I arrived at that point myself.

In 1994 I went to Walmart one night and picked up a modem on a whim. I was on the internet poking around at 2400 baud and thinking it was great. In fact, I had to persuade my grandmother to make the switch to touchtone from a rotary service so I could even dial up. Moved up through em all to 56K modems and then made the plunge into high speed cable. Back then I was buying parts and assembling my own computers instead of buying one in a box.

Now... I will be 43 in a couple of weeks.

I have never streamed a song, I still have all my CDs or just listen to terrestrial radio when driving. I decided after a year that it was foolish to pay for Sirius/XM when I can listed for free to a normal radio.

I have never streamed a movie. Don't have Netflix, Hulu or any of it. I cancelled Amazon Prime the other day because of the cost. It was nice for the shipping, but I never once in a year used it to watch anything. Usually just run through the guide and find something I want to watch when its being broadcast.

I only broke down and got a smartphone 2 years ago. And the one I have is the one I bought then. I wont even consider a new one till this one just stops working. I used the app at DLR to look at wait times and kinda see where things were located in relation to where I was. I am not sure if it did any more than that. I talk on my phone, get texts and use it for Chrome and to check my mail. No app usage of any sort.

Aside for one day at Magic Kingdom that was a shore excursion on a cruise, I have not been to WDW since 1992. Knowing that to make the most of the trip I need to use apps to do just about everything makes me particularly anxious almost to the point of realizing I may never return.

I got old.

 

[MinnieM123]

I don't agree with your explanation of getting old, simply because you didn't want to jump on the new tech bandwagon. People like different things, that's all. (If it makes you feel any better, I don't use a Smart Phone. ) Somehow I've survived . . . no sign of the grim reaper yet . . .

 

[Deleted member 107043]

I love this post because it was just last week that I made the leap from downloading music to streaming on Spotify after reading an article about the inevitable death of the MP3. I'm getting used to this new way of discovering fresh music, but I will always miss record stores.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Congratulations on turning into an old person. You now have gained selective patience, understanding and insight. A bi-product of years of experience and exposure to a variety of things. You have reached a time of reminiscing, some fear and a heightened awareness of mortality and time. You are now quite able to understand pain, understand disappointment and joy of whatever accomplishments that you have attained over the years. Increased love and need for family and friends as well as a desire to spend as much time with them as you can. It is a wonderful time of life if not a limited time of life. Make the best of it and know that the only reason why you became an old person is because you are still alive. That's a good thing.

Spoiler: One other thing...

You no longer feel the need to impress anyone. You are who you are, you don't take crap from anyone and if you feel like wearing black socks with sandals and shorts, you don't give half a damn about what others think about your decision. It's all very liberating.

 

[BAChicagoGal]

I am old. A lot older than the AP. There are many things about new technology that I still don't understand, but I'm still way ahead of my sister, who refuses to text, Facebook, and use a computer. Of course, her idea of fun is to go to the mall. When I first got a computer in 2005, I had a lot of panic attacks, and migraine headaches learning to use a pc. I then a few years down the road switched to a Mac, and I am much happier. My computer, is my go to for everything. My phone is an iPhone, and I do pretty well on that. I love taking pics, and the best thing is the digital aspect. I can take the pic and share it instantly. My sister misses out on family photos a lot, because she has actually blocked texts on her phone. Who does that? It's not that difficult. When I try to call her, I get voicemail, and we play phone tag. That infuriates me. I talked to sis the other day, and oh yes, she has an iPad, so I guess she googles that once in a while for information. My grandson is my "go to guy" for when I have some trouble. My TV was all static when I pushed the wrong button on my remote. I could not figure it out, and of course it was something really simple. He explained it to me, and now I am a wee bit smarter about that. My grandson's girlfriend gets mad when I say I'm old. She says, you know and do so much. The body says 69, but I love most of the new fangled stuff. If it serves a purpose in my life, I am all for it. I can understand those who might not Facebook. I just recently entered that world, and I Facebook on my terms. My grandson says I'm nuts with all my privacy settings. We are all different, and life is a gift. Learning new stuff is fun, and there's so much more to life, than going to the mall.

 

[Nemo14]

I just got a smart phone a month or so ago, basically to see and send pics of the grandson. I can't say that I'm a big fan of it, especially the size, but I'm learning. DH has his original flip phone (it even has an antenna) but he'll soon to switching over to my old flip phone which was at least bluetooth enabled. He doesn't like to text, but I think he'll do it more often with my old phone, which had a keyboard.

As far as computers go, I think it's foolish for people to refuse to learn how to use one (2 of my brothers refuse to even learn how to email). It might not be what we grew up with, but it's a major part of life now, and pretending it doesn't exist is just plain stupid.

We don't do cable, netflix, etc at all. We're fortunate enough to live in an area where we get multiple stations over-the-air, and frankly our TV watching is pretty much just PBS. When we travel, we like to check out all the cable offerings at the hotels we've stayed in, and we have yet to see anything we'd actually pay to have in our home.