Does anyone have the time?
Does anybody really know what time it is? Ever since Mexico did away with Daylight Savings Time, I have been confused about the time . . . here and elsewhere. One day a friend of mine and I couldn’t figure out what time it was. Our watches said one thing, our computers said another, and our cell phones had yet a different time. The program within the computer says a completely different thing.
We finally determined to change our location settings which got the computers telling the correct time. But software within the computer wasn’t helpful. The ever-popular WhatsApp records the time of each transaction . . . but under Daylight Savings Time. So when I send a message, I see when it was sent. Is this before the grandkids’ bedtime or after? Now, I find I am confused depending on what I am looking at. I even had to start wearing my watch again! Horrors!!
Technology has made things so easy, we keep being told. I have many friends all over the globe, but keeping track of their time has become like throwing a dart at the map, blindfolded. I care for them, so it’s a labor of love . . . but a labor right on. Sometimes I am awake in the middle of the night talking with them on the internet, and with them it is even more confusing because three of them live across the International Date Line. So when we speak in person, one friend says, “I’m calling from your future and you’re answering in my past.” And I tell them I guess it all evens out and finally we’ve figured out what all the talk has been about. “Maybe,” I say, “this is what they mean by living in the now.”
Even though the technology has admittedly made some things easier, I use my computer mostly for work. But computer engineers and software developers wreak havoc in my life. I can’t keep up with it. Even my phone knows more than I do! Things change so fast that the saying, Oh, that was so five minutes ago, is already outdated. I have to find a kid or an engineer to help me with my software. In speaking with some friends in the computer industry from Guadalajara I recently said, “I think it is great that I can rent my software now, but can’t you just stop changing it? I like it the way it was!”
“But that’s how we make our money,” they said, looking at me as if I were obtuse. My response was simple. “That’s fine. I’ll pay you NOT to change it!” Obviously the thought had never occurred to these people that there actually are people perfectly happy with their old operating system, their older versions of software, and even their old Facebook interactions. People who would pay a small annual fee to keep things as they are. It’s then that I hear the voice of my grandmother saying, “Why can’t they leave well enough alone?”
I get it now, Grandma, I get it. Sorry it took me so long.
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