Can I avoid the tech standard?

Hello, my name is Giselle and I suck at technology. I may be fooling you with this online blog, but don’t think I didn’t late-night dial my graphic designer pal and fret over how to type on this line,
and then on this one.

Its different from Microsoft Word and to do that I need to hold ‘Shift’ and press ‘Enter’. ‘Enter’ alone is not good enough. To give you an idea of how stressful and embarrassing this was for me, check out my first two poems in ‘One for the old man’ and ‘The philosophy of yes’ via mobile device. The lines are all over the place. I was holding the ‘Space’ bar to get to the next line. I know, pathetic.

Before you ask, I have a university education. My chosen major explains my present day dilemma quite easily. I studied English Literature and minored in History. In short, I read books, and wrote about them. I only touched a computer to do research and then to type up my essays with excruciating bibliographies. The whole time I had no clue I was missing out. In fact, I had a blast in my awesome ink and paper bubble.

I have been out of school for a few years now…I have been out of my bubble for a few years too. Hey, at least I’ve still got Facebook. But when I see some of my friends make incredible websites, edit videos and presentations I start to get inwardly defensive. ‘I bet they can’t burp their ABC’s on demand or write a kick-ass haiku on the spot!’ I have some talents yes. Still I get my back up when I witness my peers create and use the computer (and now iPhone, iPad, iTampon) in ways that make me scratch my head. Where was I when they were teaching these things now deemed standard?

I suppose I was clutching a Woolf, Ondaatje or Dickens. The consumption and use of these books is a worthy endeavour, and yet I am at a loss when other twenty-somethings can use the computer in ways I can’t. How do I measure up to them without these skills in 2011? Old man Clemens would say ‘You should not compare yourself to others.’ Well he’s dead already, and its a tough world out there. I suppose I could take a computer course at a nearby college and say ‘What up online homies!’ Or stick to my twenty-four year old guns and keep on trucking the classic route of words on paper (and sometimes screens). I would be darn happy to. In all fairness, I do want to be a writer or at least work with literature/print, therefore justifying my lack of interest in tech immersion. It all depends on what you want to do. And then I hit an imaginary roadblock for an imaginary job situation where I’m asked for a mixed media presentation….What do I do?! I can’t bring bristol board.

I think I might be doing that thing again where I freak out before I even get close to the scenario that validates me freaking out. I am not even certain of the kind of ‘job’ I want. But I am curious about how far a person could go without special computer/tech skills in this day and age. There once was a butcher, a baker, a candle-stick maker and now we have social media representatives and enterprise risk consultants. What do they sell? Chances are one of those guys is reading this over a candle-stick maker. So I guess its a whole other thing. And right now I am doing that thing.

Aw shucks. I guess I could learn as I go…