Computer Illiteracy, LOL

In this world of hi-tech devices of wireless internet, instant information, apps and other gadgets, I remain pretty primitive when it comes to computers. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older. Maybe it’s because I am computer illiterate and fear anything new, frightened of being so far left behind that I come across as a doddering old man.

Oh, sure. I have an iPhone — provided by work. And I use it like everyone else: checking scores, looking at the internet while afield and calling up  weather radars to see if rain is headed my way. Why, the other day I attended a college football game and even used the iPhone to find the scores of other games in progress. I thought I was pretty 21st century until I saw the hordes of others in the stands doing the same thing.

For the most part, I reject the pageantry of gadgetry. Wi-Fi? Why fight it, you say. It’s here to stay and we are evolving into info geeks with large thumbs and a new language used for chatting. LOL.

But this may be why I embrace the dice game of APBA. It’s simple, doesn’t require electricity and I’m not handicapped if a computer breaks down or the power goes out. Give me a dice, a pen and ambient light and I’m fine. 

I remember a debate I saw on an internet message board for the game company once. A person was crowing about the computerized version of the baseball replay game. He said he set his lineups up and chose managerial styles for his teams and then left his home for the weekend. When he returned, the season was completed, the statistics compiled and a champion crowned. But what’s the fun in that?  It takes forever to complete a dice-rolled season, but at least you’re part of it. You see it develop game by game and, while it may be old fashioned, there is the excitement associated with each game, much like in real life. 

I’m sure I sound like some crotchety old-timer harping on about newfangled contraptions and all. Of course, it’s easy for me to shun the technology. I grew up in a time when ESPN didn’t exist and we relied either on local evening news for sports reports or the newspapers for baseball standings. West coast games? Forget about it. They were never completed before the papers went to press, so editors simply put “N” by the game indicating it was played at night.

So, while we hurtle toward more instant information (I predict one day we’ll have chips implanted in our brains and contact lenses to receive internet in our vision), I continue to grasp an old tradition that I learned as a child and hope to continue on for years to come.