To Cell or Not to Cell

I had a disturbing “thing” happen the other day. Now, first, a caveat. I have a smartphone, I use it, but I really don’t like it. My digital dinosaur preference is my laptop.

The smartphone is a necessity, I admit, but when it comes to long text conversations, or other cellphone input requirements, I’m off to my laptop.

Now, a few notes about me. I have trouble keeping my fingers from “dancing” (they shake), my eyesight sucks, and I’m not one to be permanently attached to my phone. In fact, I often leave it at home or in another room and when I’m out communing with nature, it is nowhere to be found.

So, admittedly, I am in the “senior” society, which doesn’t mean I’m a technology washout, but does have some other characteristics. In my early career days, I was trained on the most advanced computer technology of that time, and I was good at it. I am still good at it as I am the computer guru in our household. I also taught business communications in college for 15 years which necessitated using and teaching students various digital tools.

But here’s the rub – I do not like using cellphones for anything long and involved. In fact, I’m not a cellphone fan in general. Tablet is about as low as I prefer to go.

Another issue here is the type of request. Prior to my recent dentist appointment, I received a request to complete a form that was sent to me via text. Right off the bat I was annoyed by this intrusion into my privacy, which became outrage when I got to the part where they wanted my photo and a picture of the front and back of my driver’s license? Huh?? No way! To make matters worse, you could not advance in the form unless you filled in all areas. Fool that I was, I didn’t just close off. Instead, my Catholic school good girl thing took over and I uploaded a photo of my dog and a random UPC code for the driver’s license. .

Okay, so the thing is, different strokes for different folks. I cannot pretend to claim I am the spokesperson for the senior crowd, but I can espouse the need to recognize that all things digital, especially things like involved medical forms, should not be distributed by text especially in this day of rampant fraudulent activity.

I have spoken.

Amen.