Lu courtesy of google.com
I admit it, I’m an analog girl in a digital world. Hiring a cab the other day, the company asked if I planned to pay with cash or plastic? I have no idea why my method of payment matters. Maybe the company sends old cars for people who still use cash.
The driver who picked me up, expecting to be paid in cash, wasn’t short on electronic gadgets, however. When I suggested a quick route home, he said he preferred his GPS system. The distance between my route and the GPS route cost me an extra couple of dollars. Worse, the man drove while using his cell phone, scrolling through his pictures to show me one of his granddaughter in her Wonder Woman costume. She was cute, I admit, but not cute enough to die for.
Okay, I’m a dinosaur. My cell phone has a flip top. I use it strictly for emergencies. The one time I needed it, the battery had gone dead. (Blog 9/26/16). Why should I trust digital devices?
Last week, I tried to pick up a windup alarm clock. The clerk at the store furled his lip in disgust. “We don’t carry windup clocks. I doubt anyone does.”
Not believing him, I went to look for myself. On a shelf, I found a single $10 model, complete with bell and clapper. I set my purchase on the counter, expecting the clerk to look contrite. Instead he asked, “Do you have batteries at home?” As my jaw dropped, he turned the clock over to show where batteries were to be inserted. The windup key was an ornament.
That occasion wasn’t my latest digital humiliation. Today, I met Lu. She has over 500,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel. My channel, Just Read It, the book review program Susan Stoner and I co-host, pales by comparison. No, to be honest, ours pales, pales, pales, by comparison. Am I wrong to resent a digital persona? How can I avoid it? People, apparently, prefer to communicate with an avatar than to Susan or me. (“The Lady Teaching Brazilians How to Shop Online” Bloomberg Businessweek, Sept. 4, 2017, pg. 21.)
