We have see many changes in household technology over the years. I remember the days when my mother made mince meat using a manual mincer and washed clothes with an old wringer washing machine. Until about 10 years ago I had a fridge that needed to be manually defrosted every few weeks. If you left it too long between clean outs it took hours to melt the ice and we had food all over the kitchen while we waited.
Now, we can buy any number of machines to make mince meat, we have automatic fridges and our washing machines are essentially computers. It seems that the changes in our homes come faster every year. I also wonder when I will reach that moment where I just can’t be bothered keeping up any more. I would like to think that this won’t happen i.e. that I will retain the desire to learn about new opportunities available to me. We all have grandparents and or older friends that just can’t let their old phone go or refuse to buy a new TV. The trouble is, if you hold on to these things for too long, even if they don’t break, the infrastructure changes and the object itself becomes redundant.
But do we really need to embrace all of new technologies?
How can we learn to be discerning and get smart about technology in our homes?
What do we really need, what would we like to experiment with and what is just not necessary?
The answers to these questions are personal and dependent on so many factors including need, money, opportunity, interest, previous experience etc.
For example…..
We have certainly been wary over the years about items such as computerised washing machines and digital fridges – the purpose and function of these machines has not changed over time so why over-complicate them with too much computer tech? Just another thing to go wrong!!
What about phones? We have ‘newish’ phones now although I always pass my old ones on to Andrew. But we only replace the phones every 3-4 years. We had our Nokia 5110 phones for so many years that the batteries needed replacing. I was asked by a very rude shop assistant when buying a replacement battery whether I didn’t believe in upgrading. I replied, if its not broken, don’t replace it and then told him that it was none of his business anyway!
On the other hand, I’ve had a Thermomix for almost 6 years and use it more and more every week. Strangely, it was our children who were a bit hesitant about the Thermomix and I was accused of being a lazy cook. But with our food background, this machine presented an opportunity to experiment and have fun with food! Fun facts for those who are concerned about energy use and cost and those with limited space: The Thermomix is very economical to run, great to use in hot weather (the kitchen doesn’t get too hot) and is good for small kitchens.
On the media side, we have large HD TVs and use several streaming services. We have a Google home mini to do all kinds of things for us, from shopping lists to reminders, weather reports and play music from Spotify on our TV. We even have rings that are actually debit cards.
Some of our decisions to keep up with the technology times is for convenience but sometimes its just for fun – and there’s nothing wrong with that!
We realise that not everyone will feel comfortable trying new machines and gadgets and we get that. However, we believe that if we are not willing to consider new things we will be totally left behind and could be disadvantaged as we get older.
This is one of the reasons why we decided to write some of our blog posts about technology. We want to help you make the right decisions. We also want to give you confidence to try new things and not be turned off at the first obstacle. We can tell you some of our own stories and do the research to help you solve your tech problems as you have a go!
Here’s something to inspire you. My 86 year old father in law recently bought himself a Smart Watch for his birthday. He wants to be able to check his blood pressure! Good on him – we just hope he works out how to use it! No doubt he will be needing some help from Andrew.
We hope you will also join us at Helpful by Nature by subscribing to our email list. We would love to hear from you, take your questions and provide answers if we are able.
Until next time,
Gillian (and Andrew)
