LOOKING AHEAD - AN INSPECTION

I am tired of being cranky about stuff I know nothing about. I am tired of sounding like every other old, out-of-touch dinosaur. I am fed up with my own stubborn sense of superiority. I am tired enough of it all to get aboard and stop griping.

Explanation: you have read my jeremiads against what a whole generation calls “progress.” You know: texting, IPhone browsing, and the biggest target: Facebook.
Time to really “Look Ahead” Larry. In the last few days my wife and I have discussed getting into some of the stuff we have scorned. Like people who say “I don’t want to dance” really mean “I don’t know how,” I have stayed away from the screens that flash instantly during intermission at a concert or the theatre, or on the subway train. Time I got with it. Time I got myself at least some kind of interactive telephone, maybe even a Blackberry! Time I climbed aboard. For my wife, this will be traumatic. She is so far behind the times she still does not know how to use a computer. That has become a skill as basic to survival as food, drink, and sleep.

I’ve begun. Finally, I am trying to learn how to use Facebook. Never mind that I am being solicited as a “friend” by people I have never heard of. Never mind that there are people who think that life is all about collecting as many friends as possible as if they were going for a record to have themselves installed in the Guinness Book. I’m prepared to stop carping and start playing the game.

I am still a little unclear of how I use the social network. I am concerned that I have retched (just a little) every time I hear “social network.” But I can’t continue to emulate Canute and hold back the tide.

I do have to promise that I will not abandon what is left of literacy. I am not ready to use the abbreviations and letters-for-words that are a staple of social networking. I might even try to abstain from giving all my friends important “bulletins” about what I ate for breakfast. In fact, even as I write this, I see why so many people seem unable to stray away from examining their phone screens for the latest hot news.

The psychologists, who say it is about loneliness, may be right. Is the urge to cuddle up to an electronic device a sign that we have forgotten how to use the telephone or smile at strangers or insulate ourselves from any real human contact?

All this having been said – here I go. I am launching myself into the 21st century.

P.S. By the way, I have heard by phone from some people who say they no longer receive my postings. I hope this is not a general problem because I have no idea how to remedy it. If your name is on my Google list you should be getting the postings. If not, I’m helpless.