Voila!
Pictured above are my new smart phone gloves, a Christmas gift from Laura’s husband Matt.
Matt drew my name on Elfster, the online program Laura used to organize the family gift exchange.
My gloves rest on my new phone in its polka dot case.
“Your cell phone matches your outfit!” I heard three times over the holidays. (I’m partial to polka dot shirts and sweaters.)
Clothing compliments are always a pick-me-up. Since this one was high tech related, I counted it double each time.
One of the compliments came from my seatmate on an a plane. ‘
“Thanks!” I said, turning toward her.
She sported a pink sweater and held a pink phone in her hand. “I buy cheap cases and change them to match my outfits,” she explained.
Talk about a technical fashion tip!
I read the following tip a few years ago in a happiness book:
KEEP UP WITH TECHNOLOGY.
The tip really stuck, as delving into technology is not my idea of a whoopty doo activity.
My brain doesn’t bend in a technical direction, and my fine motor skills are lacking, which is perhaps why I favor the random nature of polka dots.
But each time I tackle, successfully, something technical, I feel empowered, relieved, and proud.
I’m earning my polka dots and stripes.
What about you? What draws you to technology? What chases you away?
And do you agree with the happiness expert? Does keeping up with technology contribute to your overall happiness?
Friend For The Ride 
I keep up with some but haven’t really
Gotten the hang if Instagram or Twitter mainly because I don’t know how to find friends follow and don’t want to be too much of a stalker with my own kids who I really want to follow. I do agree it keeps us current.
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Yep. Got to watch following the kids too closely!
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Love polka-dots!! Nice case & gloves. I don’t have to have the latest tech – in fact I’m years behind many – but it’s important to keep up somewhat. Otherwise I’d feel like a dinosaur!
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The tech changes soooooooooooooo fast.Wish it would slow down a bit!
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My brain doesn’t think in ways that make tech stuff easy for me. I get really frustrated. But my children, ages 28 and 31, tell me I have to get with it and I think they are right. I recently made airline reservations online–if you call in to make them, you are charged an extra charge. Companies are wanting us to view our bills online and to pay online. I know very few people my age who still have a land line phone. Eventually I doubt there will be land lines. I live in the country where we don’t get cable and get horrible cell phone connection. After having to move around the house for years to find a spot where I wouldn’t keep dropping calls, we finally got rid of our flip phones and bought iPhones. We finally get great reception! I have lots of apps on my phone but rarely use them. So I am trying to move into the tech age. Otherwise I think the day will come where we have been left behind and our kids will have to do everything for us. Maybe a nice pair of gloves and funky case would make it more fun?!
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Yes treat yourself to the gloves and case!
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I have to keep up with technology to help library patrons download books to a list of devices that gets longer every day, troubleshoot problems with our pcs and wireless, etc., etc. …can’t say it’s high on my happiness list, but I do get some satisfaction when I get it right and succeed in helping people.
I remember with great fondness those simpler days when Barbara and I started our library careers together…but I do love the info. access that technology provides.
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Ah. Those were the days. We had fun. Never dreamed the card catalog would go away…
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Love the gloves! We had a cold snap here and I realized how handy gloves are that work on your screen!
I think there is an illusion that we over 50 have about tech. We think we don’t know that much and certainly not as much as our children and we let our children install and perpetuate the illusion. The truth is I think the over 50 are tech savvy. In my online business, 8 years ago when we started we would get a daughter ordering for a Mom. It has been years since that has happened.In fact at 11PM-2AM I challenge adult children to question where their Mother is and I bet they would be surprised to learn she is online!
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Ha! Their mothers are on the internet, that’s for sure.
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Love the gloves and phone cover! I love patterns and colors– no dull black for me.
Tech– I have lots, but know I don’t use anything nearly to its capacity. And forget about the tv remotes– clueless. Alas…
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Let’s hear it for colors from Tangerine Tango to Radiant Orchid!
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Hmmmmm ……i have such mixed feelings on this topic. I think we, as a society, have gotten so overwhelmed with technology and living such a fast pace to keep up, that we are forgetting to live and breathe and enjoy life!
But i am not naive…..it is the future.
Love the polka dots!
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Yes. I feel so pulled. Sure do love keeping up with friends online these days though. (And it seems so efficient compared to a phone call).
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Sometimes I would love to go back to the old days where no one could find me all the time. Those cell phones can really get on my nerves! They have taken over our lives that is for sure. But then I sure am glad to have my computer to type on instead of those old typewriters. And love emails and chats. But because of all the tech. everyone expects everything ASAP. So it can be nerve-wracking. I do think that it can take over our lives so I try to keep my computer off when home from work. But I guess we are a modern family as at Christmas my son started laughing when he noticed we were all in the living room on different tech things–he was on his cell phone, my husband was playing with the new tablet he had just gotten, and I was on the computer! That is life now.
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Yep. That’s been happening more and more on family vacations and it’s MY KIDS who are complaining that their dad and I are online too much.
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I am slow to adapt to technology but I do agree with you, I think happiness and keeping up with what is current is connected. When I finally got my iPhone this summer I went out and got a very pretty Vera Bradley cell phone/wallet and it made me very happy!! Thanks for a great read on a Monday morning!
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You’re welcome about the read. I bet your Vera Bradley is lovely!
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I admit I’m a tech junkie. I love doing it, learning it, and teaching it. There’s nothing more important for those of us at midlife than understanding the impact tech is going to have on us as we age.
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You’re our role model!
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I really enjoyed this posting fusing Fashion with Fones, Flash-drives and Floppy Disks. To answer your question, there’s one thing I really like about things becoming more and more complicated and the fact that I still have a VCR that blinks 12:00. My kids seem to feel ultra important teaching me how things work. I get more IN PERSON time (with them giving me lessons: Translation: Showing off!) than I ever have before. They even seem to be competing with one another on who can smarten mom up faster. I have six kids so this can get admittedly taxing on my brain, but still I am thrilled to have the time and attention from teenagers these days. If I would’ve known that admitting I am a tech-challenged old Fogie would’ve brought us closer, I would have done it back when I thought a laptop was a yappy little pekingese. And now you’ve given me the idea to wear polka dots to my next technology lesson – – so I can tell the kids I’m dressed for the dot.com world!
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