i have a question...

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

But But But...I'm a PC!

Tuesdays are hard.

You all know my beef with Tuesdays.

I go from teaching for four hours straight to work for two. That doesn't sound like much but it's a HUGE shift in my gears.

Going from taking care of fifty teenagers and putting out their countless small fires to taking care of one middle-aged woman and putting out HER countless small fires.

I use the organizational part of my brain in both cases, and they're just as demanding.

Recently, RM purchased an iPhone...

This is the same woman who "loses" word documents when she clicks on different pages on her office computer.

The same woman who writes her agenda down in three different places and still can't keep the details straight.

The same woman who opens an old mailing system every day because she forgets we upgraded her.

The same woman has me call her when I wake up in the morning to remind her of her appointments for the day.

An iPhone is not helping her.

I assert that it's not as counterintuitive as she thinks it is. I show her how to enter text and dates and details and make sure she names and labels everything right. She asks me vague questions I can't answer and spends 5 minutes putting in appointments in the phone's calendar, then has to go back because the time was set wrong.

After not sleeping well and then being on my feet for four hours of teaching, walking her through the steps EVERY TIME she needed to enter an appointment made me want to scream.

And, of course, it's not her fault.

And, of course, she can laugh at herself about how ironic it is that she has an iPhone.

And, of course, she appreciates my help and patience.

I don't begrudge her any of this.

But I think, today, I'm scientific proof that iPhones rot your brain.

And I don't even have one!

8 comments:

MeredithDuck said...

It seems as though there are many people who need to be followed by fire fighter every minute of the day.

Hmm, wait - if it was an actual fire fighter and I got to pick which one, maybe I'll start being incompetent too. ;)

Annie said...

she's so not incompetent though. we take for granted the innate technological skills we have these days. this woman can do pretty much anything...except enter info into an iPhone. but that's why I'M there!

Corey Nicole said...

You should get her a Droid....that would really drive her crazy! Especially with it's talk-to-text feature. See http://whatsnextforcoreynicole.blogspot.com/2010/04/droid-does-everything-but-speak-english.html

Annie said...

oh man. that would be hilarious.

@emllewellyn said...

It's possible we have the same boss, except it would never occur to my boss that she could have an iPhone because she's too busy thinking of/forgetting everything else in the world.

At least yours HAS a planner.

Annie said...

I have taught her well over these past two years! (And she me.)

catherine said...

Dude. Technology can be humbling.

Annie said...

exactly.