Have you ever met a person who is afraid of technology? I have. They are usually older people and they want nothing to do with anything new. It usually starts with something simple like a VCR or DVD player, but then goes on to include almost anything new.
The original Luddites appeared in England between 1811 - 1816. These people were weavers who broke into factories to destroy machinery because they were afraid that the mechanical looms would steal their jobs. While I am sure that some people would like to break into factories and destroy the robotics to save their jobs now, these are not the Luddites I am talking about. The Luddites I am speaking specifically about are the ones who are not really afraid of the new technology, but are instead too stubborn to learn how to use the new technology. We are all guilty of this to some extent. Something new comes out and we are just too lazy to learn how to use it right away. Instead, we wait to see if we can benefit from it without having to learn something new. The DVD player...and before that, the VCR in my house is a good example. My Mom knows how to push the power button, play, and stop and that's about it. She leaves setting the clock, attaching it to the TV, plugging it in, and anything else that might make her read the booklet to me or my daughter. She has no desire to learn anything else about the system other than to turn it on or off. At one point, I actually thought my Mom was going to join the modern world. When she first moved in, she bought a computer and a Magic Jack so that she could save money on her telephone bills. I figured that it would be great for her since she would learn something about computers as well. How wrong I was! Nearly every day she has to get Maddie to go into the kitchen and plug her magic jack in. Although we have both tried to show her how to use email, voice mail and google, she refuses to learn. Today for example, she was looking for the phone number for Monadnock Hospital. She looked in her phone book for about ten minutes, before loudly stating that she couldn't find the number and didn't want to go upstairs to look for it. The whole time she looked at me expectantly as if I could magically pull the number out of my ass...So I did, sort of. I walked over to her computer and showed her the button (again) for how to pull up google. I then clicked on the input line and told her to just type Monadnock Hospital and hit enter and that the number would likely pop up on the page. Well, that wasn't good enough for her! "I don't want to type, it won't work!" Instead, she stood up and marched up stairs. Ten minutes later, she came back down and said "I found the number!". I guess that is my Mom's version of Wasting time 101! The mind is a terrible thing to waste! I hope there never comes a time in my life where I don't want to learn, and then actively take steps to make sure that I don't! Overall, I shouldn't complain. My Mom does a lot of good things around here and she keeps herself busy. It just really bothers me when the girls see her acting like a child about learning something new. Kids learn a lot by the examples that are set around them. I try to show my girls that I am willing to learn new things. Keep learning girls, and keep your sense of wonder. You have a whole world around you! Try to learn something new every day!
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