Technologically Challenged

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, even a technologically-challenged old dog? New trick #1. When I went to the ATM to make a deposit, my debit card was expired. Turns out they sent its replacement to my old address. Wanting to get the money in the bank, I figured out how to deposit a check into my bank by using my phone, simply taking a picture of the check. Remarkable.

 

#2. After a fun day at the zoo with the grandkids, I couldn’t figure out how to fold up Henry’s stroller. I asked another family and they couldn’t figure it out either (so I am not the only one). I tried putting it in the car without folding it, but it didn’t fit, so in my desperation I thought to myself, “Google it, Barbara.” A couple of clicks on my phone, and I found an instruction manual with pictures. Success – the stroller made it home from the zoo along with three tired grandchildren and one exhausted grandmother. 

 

Two steps forward, one step back. By the end of that evening, I managed to get myself locked out of my gmail account on my laptop. It’s the email I use for the important stuff, like receiving bills, communicating with friends and clients, and sending my weekly column to the T-G. They’re telling me it will take until mid-July to let me back in, as they need that long to verify my identity – just because I forgot a password? I’ve managed to avoid Facebook jail all these years, and now this. While I may not be a wolf, I’m making his plea tonight: “Little pig, little pig, let me come in,” and the gmail peeps are taunting me in response: “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin will I open the door so that you can come in.”

 

The fact that I had to google how to fold up a stroller speaks to my natural inability to figure out anything mechanical. But the fact that I could google how to fold up a stroller speaks to my privilege. I have the right equipment. I have a computer and a cell phone with a camera. I can read .I can afford to pay for cell phone service and internet every month. 

 

Yet that is not true for everyone I know. One friend has (and is quite happy with) a flip phone. Another has no cell phone at all, by choice. Many can’t afford the $100-150 a month it costs for a cell phone and internet. A twelve year old in our church cannot read. A couple of the grandmothers can’t either. Another friend has been dependent on the computers at the library, and we all know what COVID did to that accessibility for many months. 

 

The term “privilege” can seem to be overused these days, but how I understand it is that the playing field of life is not level. Depending upon where we are positioned in regards to poverty, race, gender, age, ability or disability, and more, finding success in life, whether folding a stroller or using a computer, is more difficult for some than for others. 

 

Catholic theologian Henri Nouwen speaks to privilege from a spiritual basis: “When we have nothing to cling to as our own and cease thinking of ourselves as people who must defend privileges, we can open ourselves freely to others with the faithful expectation that our strength will manifest itself in our shared weakness.” 

 

While the struggles of the “isms’ such as ageism, sexism, ableism, classism and racism are not easily resolved, Father Nouwen understood that the challenges facing humans went deeper than labels. Might it be that if we open ourselves freely to others, even to those “others’ who are different from us, we might begin to find our way forward? We may not be able to level the playing field created by privilege of all sorts, but perhaps we can discover ways to help others get to the field or to lift them up when they stumble. It’s worth a try.