Here is my advice to older people. Don’t reject new technology. Get a smart phone and learn how to use it. Stay on top of tech. Learn the lexicon. Don’t get intimidated! What are you afraid of? Do you really think you can push the wrong button and break it?  You do, don’t you? But you are wrong! You might make a mistake, and get yourself turned around, but just hang in there and figure it out. It is just like every other new thing that you ever had to learn.

Stop being afraid.

Just learn it. Get someone to help you and learn. And keep on learning.

Why? Because if you don’t you will be left in the dust. Your grandchildren won’t know how to talk to you. But if you learn, your life will open up to all kinds of fun possibilities.

Today I helped my client learn the ins and outs of his new iPhone. He was so resistant! He was so annoying! He kept complaining about how he didn’t like technology, he didn’t want to put his email on his phone, he will never use it, blah, blah, blah

I wondered why he even got it if he hated it so much, but I was glad he got it because, like I told him, I didn’t want him to be *that* guy, the one who says things like, “These kids today and all their electronic gizmos! All they do is play on those smartphones!”

“Don’t be that guy,” I said. Keep up!

The only thing he knew how to do on his phone was talk to Siri.

“But you texted me the other day,” I said. “So you know how to text, right?”

“No,” he said, “I told Siri to text you.”

And then he showed me.

It was insane.

He really likes Siri. He likes having a little slave in his pocket.

I showed him how to text without Siri. I showed him how his camera worked and how to do Facetime. After that, his brain was fried. Next week I will teach him more things.

It’s important to keep up with the world. You don’t have to play the game if you don’t want to, but you have to know what the game involves before you make that decision.

Learn everything you can about your phone and your TV and maybe even learn to code a little. Then, if you want to choose an analog life, fine. Or if you want to make some choices about which technologies you will use and which ones you don’t need, at least you will know what you are leaving behind.

But if you reject it just because you don’t understand it, then no.. That’s just lazy. Learn the game first. Then quit if you want.

In January I was on an early shuttle bus to the airport. The driver found an Ipad on the seat. He turned and looked at us passengers, then radioed in to his dispatcher that he found it and added, “I don’t have an Ipad crowd this morning.”

I looked around at my fellow passengers and they were all around my age. I made a face as if to say, “You really don’t think we have Ipads because we aren’t in our 20s?” The guy sitting across from me, saw my look and said to me, “I work for Intel.”

We both laughed at that stupid driver in distain: “Not an Ipad crowd?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I once left my abacus on a shuttle and never saw it again.”

“Bummer,” said the Intel guy.