Many years ago when my son Jason was eight years old, I remember walking into the living room just in time to see him showing his grandpa how to work the buttons on the VCR. It was an amusing sight, and I'll never forget the look on his face when he saw me watching Jason instruct him. Now that's an extreme example of my point today, but it is my desire to improve the "technology status quo" of my country and I'm convinced one of the best places to begin is within my own community.
It's becoming increasingly obvious that technology is increasing at such a rapid rate, that HR and recruiting professionals believe that in 3 years, there will be an entirely new set of job titles unheard of today. Talk about a call to action! I'm firmly convinced that we as a society need a basic understanding of technology so we can make informed decisions on the various sophisticated political-economic developments that not only effect our daily lives, but also for improving our great country and quality of life.
I was recently perusing through the various educational facilities in the Lexington-Columbia area and I was impressed by the number of technology course offerings that are available for adults. Lexington High, Midlands Tech, and the Lexington Public Library offer classes, as well as some online sites such as udacity.com, and openculture.com. I'm totally convinced that the more you learn about technology, the less scarier and intimidating it is, and in fact, you may even find that you've got a penchant for it!
I spent 18 years in the Information Technology field, and I can distinctly remember what it was like in the beginning. I was a little intimidated but I found that the more I learned, the easier it became and it was not long before I was totally engulfed in it, and today, it’s a passion.
I encourage you to take a course on something computer related, whether it be on Windows, keyboarding, the Internet, or maybe a word processing application such as Microsoft Word. Who knows, in a few short years you may have children or a young nephew or niece asking for your computer help. . . then, it will feel really good!
I’m Jim Scarbrough and write a technology blog that has a related post at: http://pcjournal.typepad.com/blog/2012/06/computer-skills-your-ticket-to-success.html