My latest misadventure with technology, where I messed up big time again, was day before yesterday when I tried to replace my profile photo on my Instagram account.
I wrote earlier about my being unfamiliar with technology but I was met with skepticism from some who pointed out that user interfaces are now friendly and that I need only follow simple instructions.
I do now (as I pointed out in my blogpost regarding installing of apps on my own) yet still day before yesterday's lesson was about making mistakes without been aware of it, which is kind of scary - traumatic even.
So, day before yesterday, I was trying to replace my Instagram profile photo with a picture of me sitting next to a child of a relative: as I am quite sensitive about the internet being a medium of child exploitation, I tried to "crop" the photo by "pushing" the kid out of the frame of the picture.
When I saw that he wasn't in the cropped picture anymore, I must have inadvertently clicked on some button that must have given me the impression that I had "saved" that photo. But when I went "back", my old profile photo was still there, and I decided that I would deal with the problem (of inserting a new profile photo) during next morning.
I went to sleep, not giving any further thought to it. Then I woke up yesterday, and as usual, I first checked whether there were any messages for me on all my social media platforms.
There was: from Instagram which declared that a follower had liked my Instagram "story".
I was baffled because I had not posted anything on my Instagram over the past two days.
There actually was a text I had noticed some days ago to which I didn't pay much attention - my bad. It said "your story" below my profile photo, with a "+" sign on my profile photo but I had no idea what they were about because I still have a lot to learn about Instagram.
So I clicked on my profile photo, thinking that my "story" had something to do with that because it was the last thing I had played around before I went to sleep day before yesterday.
Then I was literally shocked to find that that picture appeared as my Instagram "story". I don't know how many followers had viewed it and whether the notification came because one of my followers had "liked" it.
The only relief I got was that, the son of my relative was out of the frame of the picture, so nobody could have seen him.
And another positive thing is that I played around yesterday and have, on my own, been successful in putting the above picture of me as my new Instagram profile photo.
I am starting to believe that, just as one of my friends pointed out that we might need proper training to understand works of literature, I might similarly need proper training to become familiar with current technologies. I sometimes see fliers on the street which advertise English language courses for the elderly. I am now seriously wondering whether there are private classes for Senior Citizens in communications technologies.
There are, of course, many people who are fast learners, familiarizing themselves with their smartphones and apps by playing around with them but I am not as clever or as intelligent as them when it comes to technology. Just because I can write a sentence or two in English or Dhivehi without any grammatical errors doesn't mean I am competent in other walks of life.
why not ask ur tech savvy friends to give u some lessons.. surely they can spare some time during a weekend maybe..
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the recommendation. My friends are busy with work on weekdays and busy with their families during weekends. I have two choices, one been that I continue learning from tutorials, and the other been obtaining lessons from professionals who conduct private classes for a fee. I will try to explore both these options.
DeleteBlogging about embarrassing personal tech failures is a great way to relate to people. Lot of people actually have the same problems but are afraid to talk about it
ReplyDeleteThanks. I guess openly acknowledging I do have a problem in the first place is the way forward to overcoming it through the options that are available.
DeleteYou're learning technology the hard way. What would help is looking at YT videos of how the basics work. Which I admit I've to do now and then even after being on Instagram for almost a decade.
ReplyDeleteWatching YT videos on most how-to-do things helps a lot and it's a great way.
DeleteAnd having classes for senior citizens is also a great idea.
@Shaari:
DeleteI guess learning is a never-ending process (as you pointed out in a comment to one of my earlier blogposts). Not that that's a problem 😃
@Anonymous1:01 PM:
DeleteYeah. I agree that YT tutorials are a great help. I am not ashamed to attend classes for Senior Citizens because I believe that learning and teaching is a lifelong process (as Shaari pointed out in a comment to one of my earlier blogposts). I attended a short-term Arabic language course at the former Mauhad. So I am open to learning other subjects that have a relevance on my life. In fact, I think I will pay a professional to teach me the basics of software and apps and thereafter learn on my own by following YT tutorials and other sources of instruction.