: Of some sort
You know the way babies are thrown into the pool before even walking and their instinct to swim kicks in, and they survive?! Agree with me or not, I believe this is the best way to learn generally. Recently, this belief was put to the test.
“Does anyone use ‘app-name’?” I ask my group of friends while we were headed home from an event. “Yeah.” Ishaan answered. “How can I use it to buy something from the supermarket without a physical card?” I go on. “Give me your phone.” He took my phone. We went back and forth for a bit, and he did somethings that I can’t redo. “It’s ready now. You can use it now,” he said. “Great, thanks! I’ll try it out later.” “What do you mean ‘try it out’ -it will work.” “Okay. I’ll use it.” I corrected myself and thanked him as we parted ways and forgot about it as I wasn’t planning on using it any time in the near future though.
Precisely three days later… and here, I have to expose myself as a laggard at adopting some of today’s day-to-day-use modern technology. Please tell me I’m not the only young laggard here; that’s overwhelmed by all the apps one needs for simple mundane activities like walking, meeting people, buying stuff etc? Anyway, it was a lazy Saturday that day- one of those days that you don’t want to leave the house, yet you have to. I negotiated with myself about how an evening walk would be lovely and at last; my brain was able to convince my feet that my stomach needs food and so I made a mental note of all I needed, put on a pair of jeans, put my jacket on, grabbed my card and my headphones, and made for the supermarket.
The walk was lovely, so lovely that I convinced myself to take a detour to a supermarket further from my flat which I’d never explored. I got lost on the way- yes, I used the maps, so understand me when I say, modern tech is a problem for me. Well eventually, I got there, looked around, got what I needed, and headed to the cashier. No thank you, I’m not at self-check-out level yet. So, when it was almost my turn to pay, I got into the back pocket of my jeans where I had put my card and took it out thoughtlessly as usual.
Guys! My heart almost dropped when I saw my ID in my hand! I couldn’t believe it, so I frisked myself again and again, nervously looking around and thinking, “what if I just run? I hate running, and there’s security. I can’t outrun that guy.” He looked pretty fit. “What will I do?” My mind has no problem running and run wild it did. I thought of talking to the cashier to tell her not to run my items but remember, if you’ve read the previous posts, there’s a language barrier. “This is bad, really bad” I tell myself.
I’m now the next on queue. 🛎️ I got an idea! “What if I call someone to send me money!” Then it hit me! How was this person going to send me money?! ON PHONE! I remembered Ishaan! and that I had stashed money in the app even before I was able to use it. Okay, one problem solved. Problem number two is that I’ve never used this function before; “How hard could it be though? I think I can hack it,” I encouraged myself. She greets me so graciously in two languages, which I’m happy about but I’m still sweating inside. I knew Ishaan said it’s ready for use and was hoping I didn’t mishear that at the same time.
I tried the first time, nothing. The second time, nothing! Trying to remember what I’ve observed people do… The cashier was still in a good mood. She was still smiling and humming away at a song. I said to her, “Something is wrong, give me a minute.” I don’t even think she heard me because I was crying inside. When I went to try again, a message popped up instructing me on what to do and boy was I glad for modern tech at that moment. I proceeded to pay, and I’ll be lying if I said I didn’t grin all the way home. I immediately called Ishaan when I got home to thank him again and we had a good laugh about it.
As I write this, I’m very grateful for modern tech today. I surrender to the uprising!
The funny thing is, I’m now asking myself, “What was I worried about?” Even if I didn’t have the option to pay via phone, what was the big deal? Couldn’t I just have taken the items back calmly and walked out? Is it fear of the unknown? embarrassment? Pride?
Well, Nora is still exploring, and learning.
Have you experienced anything like this? Care to share? What’s your take on modern day tech and how it has disrupted mundane way of doing things? Hate it or love it?
Socrates: “To be uncertain is to be“
Me: “What?“
😭😭😂😂😂😂😂😂