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In my opinion, I think having a cell phone allowing incoming and outgoing calls wherever you are (hospital, outside walking, grocery store, etc.) and a computer allowing access to the internet is mostly what is needed to "keep up" on any relevant level. The benefit of social media such as facebook is for you to post your current status and friends remain updated by accessing your page. This means you never actually need to pick up a phone and call anyone with your current events or send emails. This could be good or bad depending on your perspective. As for businesses who only post on a Facebook page, I always think they are trying to save money by not having an actual web page since facebook has no cost to them. However, if businesses do have a facebook page or twitter account, whatever they post should be kept current with updates, solicit feedback from their "followers", and have great looking graphics for visual appeal. If not, people just tune out. (I am in a technical field by the way.)
As for the flat screens with electronic keys, they aren't meant to type out novels, only quick chats or to look up things on the web quickly. I still like my laptop with the large screen for viewing and the actual keys to type stuff. I think you are doing fine.
This is an interesting topic.
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LOL about the remotes, I couldn't agree more! The TV in the nursing home lounge has 3 (or 4?) remotes and is hooked up to various devices so changing the channel is a specialized skill not shared by most of the staff, which is why they almost never show anything but the movie channel.

If you find your cable confusing and you live close to any urban area might I suggest an antenna? The new digital over the air signals are amazing, and free! Unfortunately I am too far from the city to pick up anything easily :(
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I hate remotes! They've become so elaborate and even the AC has one. I have Windows 7 on a nine year old desktop with a huge monitor, and since getting "Ad Remover" for Chrome, no ads, no viruses, almost never slows down - guess where a lot of that stuff must have come from? Actually, I wrote my first book on a new laptop, but 6 years later only use it for watching movies on You Tube, connected to the large TV with an HDMI cord (techie enough when I want something!), Smart phone was husband's castoff, since he needed a better one for work; no FB or any of the others. The newest thing I do like is Roku, tho I find a lot of the programs/movies too racy; there are Christian and family friendly stations, though, so enough to watch; between that and YT, don't have to pay for cable. See, make tech stuff work for you, not you work for it, just as the rest of you said.
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Wally, I agree with you, watching TV has become so darn complicated. I was happy with just old fashioned basic TV as I was always able to find something to watch especially on PBS.

Before remote control I got a lot of exercise getting up off the sofa to turn on the TV... again to change stations... again to change the volume. And to watch TV was free !! And the TV wasn't the size of a picture window. It wasn't that long ago I was happy watching a 25" tube TV.

My sig other pays extra for the sport bundles so now the monthly fee just to watch TV was the same amount that my ex-hubby and I paid for our first apartment rental.... [sigh].

My Dad was so confused after having antenna TV for all those years, then moving into senior living and experiencing cable for the first time. So he only watched those stations that had the same channel numbers that he had at home, he never channel surf. And the remote they had was not elder friendly.
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Lol, I do facebook only to keep in touch with friends and relatives. I pretty much just scroll thru. The rest of the stuff listed I know what it is but not interested in it. I went for years not having a phone. Had my flip now Smart phone. I got rid of my desktop and got a laptop. Hated those cords. My LT is about nine yrs old now.
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our cable co. just forced all customers to switch to digial tv.
and you needed a box(4) for each tv. and they charge for each box.

this made me very angry at first. CAUSE I JUST WANT TV.

I don't need a complex remote (one with 200 buttons) and I don't need my channels all changed up. for example channel 41 is now 1203.

my husband had a hard time at first tying how to connect the boxes because they came without instructions. and each box you had to call a help line to get connected.

the boxes are stupid. sometimes they don't work in sequence with the tv. so if you turn on tv. , the box doesn't turn on. so you have to get up and push the button on the box.

I have the tv on all day because im alone and I like to. but after 4 hours the tv turns itself off.

and while I watch tv, I hear my cable company (commercials) brag on how great it is.

so my bill is more, I cant see the little buttons all squeezed on the remote. and the picture doesn't seem like a big deal. and they give you only one remote per TV.

I told my husband if we were any older we would be struggling bad. I feel for older people trying to figure this stuff out.

and my other choices with another company didn't seem like a good thing either.
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Further thoughts: I now understand how parents feel when they're faced with changes of which they don't approve, or aren't comfortable or don't feel worthwhile.

Our parents especially faced significant challenges, from the Depression and then WWII. Even though we've lived through various "wars" or regional confrontations, they aren't like the World Wars.

Every time I watch a WWII movie, I become unsettled thinking of what the English and French, the Dutch, and other conquered peoples endured, how much they sacrificed, and how terrifying their lives must have been.

They proved their mettle. They don't have to do it again by becoming computer savvy and learning how to communicate on tiny devices - they probably had to learn Morse Code, which was probably in many cases a life saving knowledge. I don't think there's anything about learning how to navigate FB, Instagram, Twitter or any of the other social media forums that comes even close to the value of knowing Morse code.

As an American I've never had to worry about my home being bombed. Although there were practice raids for a Soviet nuclear attack, it's not the same as hearing an air raid siren and dashing down into a shelter.

I remember scrambling for shelter during practice nuclear attacks. They were unsettling, and frightening. It was hard to conceive of being in America and being subject to a Soviet nuclear attack.

I think those kinds of events remained in the minds of those who experienced them, just as those who've experienced being in the path of tornadoes, hurricanes, N'Easters, and wildfires remember the fears experienced.


So when I hear people lauding FB, Instagram, and others, my response is kind of "ho hum." WHY do I need to be concerned about using or knowing how to use them? I need more knowledge of how to fix my car, to fix my broken frig, to recover the kitchen floor, replace a leaky sink, and really practical things. Social media is just fluff to me.
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I have a desktop, and prefer it. I-pads have poor keyboards; anyone who's typed for years can tell you that a keyboard should not be flat; it needs to be angled.

Texting on a small phone is for the birds. I've had carpal tunnel syndrome and tenosynovitis in my hands or wrists and don't want to go through that and therapy for it again.

There's another issue and that's what we've done at work. Paralegals used to have secretaries, but eventually they as well as attorneys did their own typing and to a certain extent drafted their own documents, then often gave it to secretaries to "clean up" and reformat.

Anyone who's worked on multi-page documents knows the value of a really good sized screen with a good keyboard. I can't imagine any secretary being comfortable preparing a 20+ page LLC agreement or 30 - 40 page reciprocal easement agreement for a commercial real estate project and enduring the discomfort of a laptop or I-pad.

So I think we we're using now is in a large part a reflection of what we've used over the years as we segued from manual to electric typewriters, and then into computers.
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I consider myself lucky that I helped to raise my now 30 something nephews or I wouldn't even be as tech savvy as I am, the types of jobs I did never involved using a computer. I still have my flip phone too and it does everything I need it to, I refuse to change just for the sake of changing (although texting on it is painful). I won't give up my landline either, nobody has been able to back up the assertion that I would be saving money and I like to be able to actually hear what is being said!
Social media? Nope, not interested. Although I find it really annoying that many organizations have a Facebook page as their only web presence and visiting without logging in is difficult. And WHY does every google search I do now try to lead me to Pinterest??
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