Baffled boomer tackles computer boot camp one byte at a time

I’m peering at the screen on my new MacBook Air as different images and commands pop up and disappear, but I’m simultaneously thinking of a second cup of morning coffee.

“Concentrate!” barks the voice beside me.

It reminded me of a St Joseph’s nun who wouldn’t let us look at the clock during a maths lesson.

But no, it’s my adult son, the same one who used to be casually strumming his guitar when I peeped in to see if he was studying for the HSC.

After my many computer breakdowns on my outdated Windows workhorse, he insists it’s time to step up to the far superior Apple technology. But alas, I can only absorb it in nibbles.

“I might have a little break now – how do you turn this thing off?” I ask, squirming out of his clutches.

“For the 10th time, go to the red dot in the left-hand corner,” he says, half relieved to get rid of me.

The Mac returns to its calming homepage featuring tropical fish swimming luxuriously around in circles, and I sprint off towards the kitchen.

Yes, the tables have turned and technology has done the heavy lifting by flipping the scenario of who is in charge, with many of us oldies still back in the 1990s wandering around in a psychedelic daze.

But ignorance is a recipe for disaster when just about every task is now taking on a digital tone.

Many of us rely on Gen Z and the rest of the alphabetical young’uns, who now have boomers in a whimpering stranglehold when it comes to surviving in the digital world.

My computer boot camp classes lasted throughout the Christmas period, and of course I’m grateful because I now have a modicum of knowledge to limp along for a while.

But I’m not wimping out because this huge knowledge gap seems to be getting wider by the minute.

I’ve interviewed people from CEOs to teachers and engineers who admit to struggling with digital technology, often preferring to live out the rest of their lives in peaceful ignorance.

However, that is not a practical stance.

Just recently it took me two days to contact my bank over a scam scare because nobody seemed to be answering phones.

Recorded messages would almost get you to a human before the robotic voice would say, “We’ll transfer you to one of our staff members. However, it’s easier and quicker to go to the app, and we will download the link to your device”, and then the call ended!

They at least kept their word and sent the app, which to me may as well have been a road map of Kazakhstan, sending me into another infuriated spin.

A day later a woman from the bank called back to apologise after seeing my 15 missed calls and I explained my frustrations to which she responded with an offer to make an appointment so we could go through it together.

And I’ll be attending because this is half the problem for older generations.

Help is out there for seniors at, for example, community centres and libraries, but us oldies are falling so far behind we often don’t have the lingo to explain what we don’t know.

To do nothing though is folly because it will mean life will become harder as technology zooms along with no sign of slowing.

I’m determined to make 2025 the year I sit and listen to those in the know.

And to be fair, and also to ensure I don’t get a writ from my son, he bought the Mac laptop as a Christmas present “to make life easier” so I have to give him a huge shout-out for that.