I have seen a few postings about this on Facebook and understand the sentiment. These posts concern the use of apps and phones, atm cards and other forms of payment. They can be a source of frustration for the elderly. Wait a minute, I’m the elderly.

My mother, God rest her soul, refused to ever get an ATM card. She would flatly refuse that each and every time her bank attempted to issue her one. No! She used her checkbook. And she recorded those transactions with the precision of a drill team. I can’t imagine her using a computer, an app or a smart phone of any type. She did have a cell phone, on a pre-paid plan! There would never be any charges she didn’t know about! They weren’t scamming her!

I have been in the checkout line when the person ahead of me is struggling with their cards. Perhaps they don’t remember the pin, or they don’t understand exactly how to use the pin pad, or they are having difficulty even seeing that pin pad. Whatever the case I have seen cahiers getting upset, a bit rude and abrupt when that happens. It’s always the younger ones because they just don’t understand what a challenge it can be.

I have problems with online help at times. I really don’t have a firm grasp on screen shots, changing browsers, and splitting screens or using those QR codes. QR stands for quick response, a real misnomer as far as I’m concerned. But many others assume I know all about that stuff and they get confused when I tell them I don’t know what they’re talking about. Thing is that they can’t explain it either.

 “You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.” Do you know who said that? It was Einstein. Just how prophetic was that. Not understanding something is very isolating; you are out of the loop. I’m a cautious man by nature. I learned at a very young age; do not mess around with things you don’t fully understand. Curiosity killed the cat you know!

It is a source of concern for me, all this technology. The concern is the reliance on energy. Should there ever be a major disruption in power, no way to power up that tech, we will be in deep trouble! Digital currency only works with digital technology and digital technology requires power.

While everyone is worried about the means of producing the power we require, investing billions in solar technology, nuclear power and batteries, has anyone considered what to do without power? Energy dependence is nothing new, I understand that. It drives the global economy.

All this modern technology, QR codes, bar codes, pin numbers, encrypted communications, smart phones and even just starting your car is dependent upon energy being available. Could mankind survive today without that? No, we would plunge into the dark ages once again!

Knowing how to operate that technology will not be of any help whatsoever. Energy dependence and technological dependence will be the end of us. We will forget how to live without that. Then, when we need to relearn it, we won’t be able to access that information because, we didn’t write it down. It’s on the hard drive, in a data center that has no power. Useless.

Not understanding the new technology doesn’t make us elderly folks stupid. Often, we just don’t have anyone that can explain it to us. The reason for that being, you don’t really understand how that works yourself! It’s something you learned by rote. Do you really know what makes it work? How does that QR code thing actually work? I know, you just scan it with your phone. You don’t have a phone, what do you do now?