Curbing My Enthusiasm

With apologies to Larry David I'm taking my son's advice and curbing my enthusiasm for new technologies.

If you've been following my attempts to master the photo organizing and sharing service of Google's Picasa you know it's been a challenge for me. I haven't given up yet, but I'm going to take it a little slower.

I got into it originally because my grandson in Israel began using it to send us pictures of our great-granddaughters. It worked much better than trying to send them in small doses vial email. So I signed up for the service and thought it was going to be easy.

I was wrong. I guess I'm not attuned to the fast pace of internet life. I need to take things one step at a time and I need to have things explained to me in plain English rather than tech-speak. I need to be able to find things in a simple way and I hate having to ask questions on line because they never offer the answers I'm looking for.

I don't think I'm totally ignorant. I'm using the internet to blog. I send and receive emails, although the amount of spam is growing drastically. I use a cell phone sparingly. I also use it to text my grand-children in New Jersey. Most times they respond. Sometimes I have to text twice to make sure they get it. I love them unconditionally.

I read about the new techno-gizmos introduced virtually daily and wonder why we need all that stuff. But there are early adapters out there who will grab at anything that reeks of “new.” I will not be one of them. I will monitor my techno-pulse and whenever it seems to be racing, I will lie down and take a nap.

Call me retro-man. Or whatever.