Do I really need to learn this?

A look into the future and operating technologies...

    Imagine all your life you wrote your thoughts and communications with fancy and paper and quill.  Everything that was produced was personalized and unique to not only the person writing the letter but also to the recipient.  Pen strokes had meaning as well as the elaboration of the words utilized.  For this to work all you had to know was how to read and write, even then if you couldn't do either or both, you could hire someone to do it for you.  

“Letters also usually disclose a person’s thoughts and feelings at some level, like ‘I was excited to see you last month,’ or ‘This is how I’m thinking about a situation,’” Sara Algoe said (Jared, 2023).

THEN BOOM!!

     It's no longer possible to communicate how expressively as society was once able to with the introduction of writing technologies.  Typewriters are similar to handwritten messages once a mistake was made, the author would have to restart the entire letter.  However, it came with a standard font face, that may or may not have taken through the pages.  Computers provided the ability to change fonts, so now you have to worry about sending the wrong message depending on the font type (see image below).

    Enter the Internet, now I want to make it clear that I am not saying age has anything to do with your ability to unsuccessfully utilize the functions that are offered.  But what I am saying is that technology is something that everyone needs to take the time to learn when it changes.  And boy is it ever changing.  The Google Play Store gets daily updates with nearly  1,500 new apps, making it the largest mobile app store in the world (Patel, 2024).  That's a lot of new things to learn if you want to stay current with all the technological advancements.  

    In the workplace, no one is awaiting mail to be delivered or telephonic correspondence.  Everything is done by email and teams applications such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.  Applications where documents can be stored and worked on together.  I didn't use Zoom, however, we use Teams a lot for work and it even shows you edits in real time made by other members with access.  However, if you have a lazy IT department, they will grant access to everything for everyone.  I recently updated what I thought was our team's page, to be called by a teammate and informed that I added our information to another teams page, because I wasn't paying attention.  New technology in the workplace has nothing to do with age, it has to do with your desire and ability to learn new things.  I know at the beginning of remote work, my organization offered training on all the Office and Microsoft technologies (Excel, Teams, etc.) to help to familiarize employees with how these things worked.  

Reference

Ars Technica. (2018. March 19).  Every Generation answers: Do older people not "Get" the internet? | Ars Technica. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRQrLfwvH4k

Jared, S. (2023, October 31). Why handwritten letters mean so much. UNC. https://www.unc.edu/discover/why-handwritten-letters-mean-so-much/. 

Patel, S. (2024, January 04). Mobile app usage and growth statistics for 2024. Mind Inventory. https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/mobile-app-usage-growth-statistics/#:~:text=The%20Google%20Play%20Store%20gets,from%20the%20Google%20Play%20Store.