Story by Jon Stalnaker, AKA The Studebaker Dude
I make that title statement out of my personal frustration with having to deal with today’s technology. It’s not a statement of fact, but rather an outburst over how I feel about the EVER-changing world of all this stupid technology that I believe is designed to make Boomers like me look stupid.
I use the word “stupid” because it is much cleaner than the filthy words that are actually flashing through my brain.
I welcomed this world back in the late 1980s, when it was new, exciting and easy to use. There were always computer geeks who could sit at a keyboard with their fingers flailing and the screen scrolling at a hundred miles an hour. They would be glued to the screen, soaking in every bit of it, while I watched in total awe.
I knew some of those guys, but I was never one of them—nor did I desire to be. I did get pretty good with Excel, and I liked being able to type without using “White-Out.”
My skills became better and better as I developed useful spreadsheets and put together workbooks linked to other spreadsheets. They could spit out all my reports without me having to enter the same number on six different forms.
Back then, whenever the software was upgraded, we were sent through a class at the district office to learn the new features. I could stay up to date. But I retired in 2006 and haven’t had any update training while the software has become more and more complicated.
I strayed away from Excel spreadsheets and focused more on my writing and photography. Trying to keep up is getting harder as I age because the technology becomes more difficult and I become crankier. (You can laugh at that.)
I have been using Microsoft Publisher for the stories I am putting into book form. I started using Publisher several decades ago, when I was the editor of my Studebaker club newsletter. I already had it on my computer when I began putting my silly stories into book form, and I am comfortable using it.
But Microsoft is discontinuing support for Publisher in October, so now I have to find a different app and learn how to use it. So far, I haven’t found one that can take over the 36-plus stories I have already completed.
I’ve only got a couple more weeks to figure out what to do, and right now I am overwhelmed by the task at hand. I spent most of yesterday trying to set up a transfer using an app called Canva, only to be told I would have to use an updated version that costs money.
I tried setting it up by talking to an AI bot, but I couldn’t understand the instructions and couldn’t get transferred to a real person.
Carlene just told me she saw a news story in which someone working in the AI industry suggested that, within 10 years, AI will begin killing off people who have become obsolete.
Surely that story was created just to scare everyone because it certainly sounds far-fetched. I’m just glad I was born in 1951, and if I can make it to 85 years old, that will be plenty for me.
But my heart goes out to the young people who will have to deal with whatever the future has in store for this world.
And you wonder why old guys like me get to be so cranky.
Go ahead and laugh…