Does technology scare you away or do you embrace it full-force. (Shutterstock)
By Mary Lynn Bruny
There are those of us who have successfully transitioned to everything electronic and progressive – active participants in the world’s exciting technological advances. Then there are those of us who hang onto our old-school habits, either out of stubbornness, inertia or simply an inability to absorb the incredible influx of new technological changes constantly barraging us.
Not sure which you are? Consider which answers to these questions best describe you:
What kind of thermostat does your home have?
A. A smart one I control with an app on my phone.
B. I couldn’t tell you. It came with the house. But it works just fine. Who needs an app on your phone when you can use the fingers on your hand and the brain in your head?
When you go grocery shopping, what do you use for a list?
A. A shopping list app on my phone.
B. A list scribbled (almost illegibly) on a scrap of paper, perhaps on the back of an envelope or letter from AARP. On it my spouse has written: “NO NOT forget to pick up your cholesterol medication!” (To be honest, I’ll probably forget it.)
What type of vehicle do you drive?
A. A hybrid.
B. A gas-powered one that has a bunch of controls that I have no idea how to operate or program, or even what some of them do for that matter.
What kind of security system do you have for your home?
A. A whole-property system with multiple cameras that I control with an app on my phone.
B. An old dog that occasionally notices strange noises and barks a little but mainly sleeps through everything (unless its own farting sounds wake it up).
Your smart phone says it’s due for a software upgrade. What do you do?
A. Do it.
B/ Fret about it due to that bad experience the clerk at the grocery store told me about seven years ago. (He lost all his photos!) Ask other people’s opinions, hesitate for weeks, and then finally do it after my children relentlessly make fun of me. (But really: Why all the updates? Can’t they just make things correctly the first time?)
What is the format of your daily “To Do” list?
A. My “Tasks” list is electronic.
B. A paper list, of course. How are you supposed to get the immense gratification of crossing off a completed task if it’s on some electronic thing? Matter of fact, I put things on my “To Do” list that I’ve already completed just so I can cross them off. So satisfying!
You have a new dishwasher that keeps obnoxiously beeping after the run cycle until you open the door. What do you do?
A. Figure out how to program it to stop.
B. Ask my teenage or adult child to figure it out, which they say they’ll do as soon as they’re done “harvesting their crops” on some video game. This never happens so I just live with it forever. After a while I barely hear it given my advancing tinnitus.
And finally: What version of this newspaper do you prefer reading, electronic or paper?
A. Electronic.
B. Paper! One of the few simple joys in my life is my morning newspaper and a cup of Joe. And I plan to enjoy this experience until the day the printing presses stop running, which will be a sad day indeed.
By Mary Lynn Bruny. Mary Lynn writes about local real estate and home-related topics. Contact her at ml.bruny@comcast.net. To read previous The Lighter Side articles, go to athomecolorado.com/the-lighter-side.
