George Jackson, Author

A Reticent Technonubbie in a Highly Technological World!

     Yes, I invented the word Technonubbie, but it is exactly the right word to use when pinned to me or someone like me. Yes, I have had and loved using computers forever. Yes, I now actually have traded in my dumb phone for a smart one! Yes, I am an avid gamer and have Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Xbox One consoles. Yes, I set up our wireless/wired LAN system around the house incorporating computers, TV, iPad, game systems, DirecTV, printer and router. Yes I have battery backup surge protector upstairs in the loft and downstairs in the living room. Yes, I create my own covers using pictures off my camera and cell phone and a site called myecovermaker.com. Yes, I publish on KDP, and have 20 ebooks there now. Yes, I can reboot everything and usually figure out what I screwed up or the lightning screwed up. Yes, I now blog, FB and tweet every day. Yes, I text family members each evening.

     But, and this is a big but, I simply don't understand a lot of the technical stuff that goes on around me anymore. I feel like a kindergartener after their first week of school. (The first few days they are all enthused and hyper just to be going to school. The second week they begin to realize that school's a place where you have to learn all the stuff you don't know and that's a lot.) I listen to family, friends and colleagues rattle off their technospeak and I simply stay quiet. Because I don't understand it all. I beginning to find out that I don't have the expertise to edit the pictures for my covers properly. I don't understand all the intricacies to blogging or tweeting. I simply marvel at what other people do. I don't use FB to the best advantage, but I'm learning here and there.

     I have a beautiful new iMac 27 screen computer, and yet, there are so many things that I don't understand or know how to do on it. I had to text my daughter this morning to find out how to make a program that freezes all the time quit. Sometimes, I feel like the techno-challenged kid in school, hoping the teacher just won't call on me.

     I just wondered, seriously, am I alone in all this? Am I the exception to the rule or are their legions of people like me, legions of technonubbies somewhere out there? And if there are a lot more of us, can we sign up for meetings, take the technonubbie pledge, start the twelve step program and somehow rise above our techno-infirmaties? Seriously.

     Somehow, the world left me behind when I actually thought I was keeping up. That's a very strange feeling. I will keep at it, but I'm sure I will fall farther behind all the time. But I will struggle on, I'm a stubborn Scotsman.

     But, what  am is a writer. I create worlds where people can lose themselves. I make people stop and reassess their values. I can magically elicit tears, bring forth laughter and make the reader feel the warmth and happiness of pure joy from the words I place on a page. I am a writer, a wordsmith, a teller of tales. I weave a story and wrap it around my reader. Hopefully, there is still room for the likes of me in this ever increasingly technical world. I truly hope so.

     May the dragons watch over us…and keep too much technology at bay...