Over the past week, I have had disastrous results after updating two different applications. As my friend J will quote me, “I love me some technology” comes out of my mouth and fingers often. I always have been a fan and the accessibility and connection to the world that my devices provide me since my vision loss has been life-changing. But these updates are painful and frustrating. More than a learning curve, there is s learning cliff, from which a fatal fall could occur at any moment.
These changes are difficult for all of us to adjust to but there is an extra degree of challenge when sight is impaired and you are used to the old format, look and features of what is really an extension of you. We can’t stop the upgrades and once they occur, we are forced to live with them.
Sound familiar?
The experiences we have in our lives are like the updates to our technology. New developments take place in our lives every minute, ever-changing what we knew a heartbeat ago to be true. Hundreds of minor alterations each day, major redesigns in the blink of an eye. We are left to learn, adapt, function, master and teach. Or we go back to the manual typewriter and exist in the past.
I liked the past. I loved playing with my mom’s manual typewriter when I was growing up. I was perfectly happy with my iPhone yesterday before I did the update last night. After months of work creating the look I wanted for this blog I was preparing to promote it to the world. But then some updates took its appearance back two years. And I loved my life before 2012 when my mom was alive and I could see properly. It is incredibly difficult to move forward and have to do things in a completely new way and maybe even have to return to the beginning. I have cried and cursed and been totally devastated by updates. We all have. But technology isn’t going anywhere and neither are we until our ultimate update comes up. Which leaves us to figure it out. Best to take it a little at a time, go at your own pace, give yourself a break when you need it, ask for help and use all the bad feelings to propel you forward. And I can tell you without question: the cursing helps. A lot.