I fought it for the longest time. Many tried to convert me, but I held off as long as I possibly could. I tried everything to avoid the final fall, but I fell anyway.
You might say I was resistant to change, but I don’t believe that’s truly the whole story. There was much more to it than just that.
Mother Technology raised me up in a PC world. IBM and Microsoft were my friends. I understood how they worked, and they were simple. They always did what you wanted them to do without too much fuss. They even had shortcuts that made sense.
Still, the pressure remained. With each passing year, it seemed as if more of my friends and family were moving to the Darkside. And they wanted to take me with them. Still, I resisted.
It was very similar to the time I fell victim to the requirement of carrying a cell phone. At that time about 15 years ago, when my wife and I started dating, the first thing she asked was what was my cell phone number.
“Cell phone number?” I looked at her with a degree of incredulity. “I don’ need no stinkin’ telephone on my hip!” That went over like a lead balloon. The next thing I knew, I was sporting a brand new cell phone.
Obtaining a cell phone was my first slip towards the Darkside. Now, I find myself on a very slippery slope heading faster to the “darker” Darkside.
Many of my friends feel as though I have finally come to my senses. Personally, I feel a bit more … insane. As well as perhaps, a little discombobulated.
Like many, I was very comfortable with my PC and Microsoft. Following the educational principal of primacy, I learned about computers and software on a PC. The keystrokes and shortcuts made sense. And here was my main concern with Macs and Apples.
It seemed as if everything I did on a PC in Microsoft took very few strokes. When I played with the Apple computers others owned, it seemed as if the shortcuts were not really shortcuts. The Apples took three to six more keystrokes to do the same thing I could do on a PC with two strokes, sometimes one.
So, I continued to resist. I fought against it with all my strength and mental capacity. Still, I could feel myself slipping … getting closer to the point of no return … with no handhold on which to grasp to stop my desperate plunge … to the Darkside.
The next thing I knew, I was standing in a BestBuy telling the geek behind the counter I would take one of those I Pad things …
I had fallen off the precipice into thin, cool, and dark, air. Now I would have to learn all the Apple shortcuts and software. There was no turning back now; it was impossible. I had explored too close to the edge and had fallen.
There was no salvation. Forgive me, PC! It was not my fault, IBM! It was Microsoft’s fault! They stopped supporting my cell phone and the 6.5 Mobile OS! So I had to find alternatives for my contact lists, my calendar, and indeed, all of my mobile office applications.
That was when I was most vulnerable, when I was looking around for the alternatives. That was when the Apple geek showed me a shiny new I Pad and I was fearful. It did all the things I needed it to do, if only in a foreign language.
I thought, I could learn to speak Apple. And that was the precise moment I fell to the Darkside. Fearful, I knew I had no choice other than to take the plunge. Woe is me!
But wait! They have Apps!
-30-
©2012 J. Clark
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