Saturday, April 13, 2019

THE CHANGE GENE

    My retirement organization  has a first class quarterly magazine. It keeps us up to date on what's new for us. It also contains interesting articles on senior topics:travel, health, arts, writing, hobbies and many more topics. It's one of those magazines that grew because it had an excellent editor. 

    The last issue had an article about "the Change Gene" One of our retirees wrote an article about how she helped her 91 year old mother with her computer. Her Mom was ok with email but not much more. Daughter was trying to get Mom familiar with other areas of her computer.

    Then daughter stopped and started to think about changes people go through. Particularly the comparison of changes that mother and daughter had gone through and why each had a different experience with computers.

    In our lives we go through many changes as we age .Well maybe that's not right. Many changes come along that we experience. What we do with these changes is a result of our experience and how we have taken advantage of previous changes. 

    It was hard for daughter to teach mother about computers as mother had very little experience with computers. Daughter started to wonder how she would adapt to changes coming up.

    When I started flying all we needed was a piece of paper (ticket) in our hand and we got on the airplane. Now I need help to check myself in on the computer.

    The first car I ever owned was a 1929 model A Ford. Today I own a Honda CRV. With the old model A we just bounced down the road. I call the CRV an glorified sensor. That's just the change in cars. I wasn't really ready for the CRV.

   So the writer of the article started to wonder if we had a change gene or needed a change gene. We need something to help us get by all the changes we meet in life.

39 comments:

  1. If only we had a change gene! I like the concept of that since the only constant is change. If you think about it most of us have successfully negotiated many changes in our lifetimes. I think those many and constant changes just become a bit more difficult as we get older. Or maybe we get to a point where we have worn our change gene out!

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    1. I agree that age is a factor but only one. A person's background and life experience would also be an influence.

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  2. Yes, change happens. I admire people older than I (I am 74) who have kept up with technology. Technology has enriched my life.
    Then I hear that we will soon all be connected with "G", which will be faster. 5th generation already? Wow. I guess I will keep up with what's new if I think it is useful, and it if is affordable and convenient. I am still not sold on electric cars, and certainly not on self-driving cars. But that could change too.

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    1. You've obviously done some research on what might be ahead for us.

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  3. We all need teenagers to keep us up to date!

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    1. Yes, I've always had access to some teenagers.

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  4. You're right. There are just so many changes coming fast and furious. For the most part I can cope but I wonder how long that will be the case. My late mom never learned anything about computers and she couldn't operate anything technological unless it was very simple. It became harder and harder to find simple cassette players, telephones and so on for her.

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    1. Apparently changes in new technology will come with increasing speed.

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  5. I think we are more open to change when we are younger. Maybe this is the underlying reason why I have never owned a mobile phone or sent a text message. However, I do like blogging and communicating by magic with rugged bear-wrestling Canadians like yourself.

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    1. Hey, you've picked some wonderful people when you visit us. I don't have a phone but I have texted from my ipad.

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    2. You have got an eye pad now? You must look like a pirate!

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  6. We don't need a change gene, we just need to be willing to adapt where necessary.
    And it's not always necessary to take on every change that comes along. If it will improve our life, well and good. If we can get by without it, then that's our choice.
    Alphie

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    1. Thanks for visiting and making a comment on Hiawatha House. Attitude is key for us to move forward successfully.

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  7. Hello, A change gene would be nice to have. I think they are making it harder to fly now, in 2020 there will be some big changes. You would think they would make things easier not harder. Enjoy your Sunday, have a great new week ahead!

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    1. I think there are a few other genes that might come in handy too!

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  8. I always think of my great-grandmother when stories like this come up. She was born in a time of horses and buggies and by the time she died, man had walked on the moon. Truly mind-blowing! Some people are more adaptable with change than others. I find myself struggling with some newer innovations -- or, more accurately, finding them of little use to me.

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    1. Change happens at increasingly rapid time frames. Yes, my granny was born long before the first flight and took a flight on a jet before she died.

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  9. My mom is 92 and uses a laptop and an iPhone. We think she is amazing! I hope i can be as open to change in later years as she is but it seems like everything is just change faster and faster than it did in the past. And is more complicated.

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    1. Change will come faster and faster. We are going to be forced to make changes whether we like it or not.

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  10. I remember buying my mother a computer in the 1990s. She never got used to it and was always afraid it might break down. She liked computers before Windows came out but felt overwhelmed with Windows XP. On the other hand I knew a woman about the same age as my mother who loved computers and took some classes.

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    1. As we get older we tend not to learn by trial and error and like your mother think that we will damage things.

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  11. This morning at the coffee shop a friend was lamenting that his Huawei phone won't turn on. So we went on my iPad and we watched a video of how to take out the battery, which is recommended for that particular phone. It was so complicated that he decided he needs to take it to a 15-year-old. :-)

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  12. Life is all about change and adaptation.

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    1. Now that I think about life without change would not only be boring but also limited.

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  13. ... but it would definitely make changes easier if they gave you an owner's manual when you got a computer, and instead of writing the directions in "engineeringeze" actually gave them to you in English!

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    1. More than that the initial manuals are not written in English and translations and poor ones at that.

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  14. The only thing we can depend upon is change!!!

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    1. Depend on it or stay in the dust as it goes by.

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  15. Hi Red, Somebody once told me ... The only thing that doesn't change is change itself.

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  16. We do experience many changes in our life. Some of us adopt them and adapt. Some of us don't. I think it's a personal choice.

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    1. I think we're getting to a point where we won''t have an option but will have to change.

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  17. Technology is probably the biggest and most rapid of changes the world has seen. What's new today is old tomorrow and obsolete not long after that. It's hard to keep up with it. And it has spilled over into so many parts of our lives, not just tech devices but everything from banking to health care to vehicles (as you pointed out). It can be hard to keep up with this kind of change.

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  18. i agree that we need help to adopt new changes dear Red

    very first computer came to our house in 1996 and my eldest son learnt everything all by himself which i still wonder how because i cannot do this with guidance

    when he made me blog in 2009 i knew nothing about computer except turning it on or off and so because my son did this front of me so often

    it took me months to learn how to publish post without help of my son ,and i am still learning

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  19. Think as a child if anyone even discussed a possibility of a computer. My first class we used punch cards to program

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  20. I remember the first time a computer was brought into this house, and the first time we got on the internet. It took me over a year to bring myself to go on it. I treated it with great suspicion, way too out there for me. Now? It is part of me.

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  21. Hi Red, Just stopping by again to say thanks for all the comments you leave for me on my blog. Thank you for the support!

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  22. Hello Red. Been away off computer. Finished having my second Knee replacement so all is good. Except my Surgeon was killed. A Rig did a knife Jack. He was killed. It was a terrible winter storm. My Grandkids all use iPad and they Text. I am learning but the keyboard letters and numbers are tiny. Did you find that?

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