TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
school?” One baby boomer responded with, “You won’t always have a calculator with you.” That did turn out to be a lie; I always have a calculator with me. Unless I leave my phone in the restaurant like I did last night. (Eyeroll emoji) Technology has given us many gifts, not the least of which involves the ability to communicate with others immediately and efficiently. It all falls to the ground, however, when you turn off your ringer and forget to turn it back on. Many is the “Tap tap. Is this thing on?” text I’ve sent my husband when he fails to notice my “Does Tuesday morning work for you?” text sent two hours prior. Things can go awry even when operator error isn’t involved. Our yoga teacher began our practice as she usually does, bringing us to a comfortable seated position and inviting us to concentrate on our breathing. “Drop your right ear to your right shoulder,” she continued, “and extend your left arm to the side.”
“That might be beyond my current
an answering machine, or a desk-top calculator. Visiting with my Dallas doctor on Zoom saves me about five hours of road time. Downloading a book on Kindle saves a trip to the bookstore, where they will just have to order it anyway. I can let the exterminator into my house by operating my alarm system and front door lock from Switzerland. The only tricky part is remembering the password. It all begs the obvious question: What’s next? What will they come up with that will make the iPhone passe? Will my brainiac car fly to Dallas? Will a robot make lasagna? There’s been lots of talk recently about artificial intelligence, which has apparently become so smart it could write this column for me if I asked it to. I guess that would render me obsolete. Like I said. A double-edged sword.
capabilities,” replied a loud voice.
Talking in yoga class being frowned upon, we all looked around to see which class member was being so disrespectful. It was not a class member, though. Our teacher uses her phone for background music, and somehow Siri had decided— unbidden—to join the class. Apparently, she is not very flexible. The ever-presence of young grandchildren in our lives underscores the changing of times so vividly. When our oldest was three, we still had a landline with four extensions. One day when he and I were upstairs, he heard the phone ringing from downstairs and alerted me. I went to answer the upstairs phone, whose ringer was broken, and he said, “No, not that one. The one downstairs.” I started with a thorough explanation of how extensions work before I realized that he had no need to ever possess that information. He would never use a landline,
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LIFE & STYLE
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