I get somewhat frustrated at people, our age and older, who come in to the store and ask questions about technology and preface those questions with “I know absolutely nothing about technology”. You know that is an oxymoron right, because we grew up in an era of technology that grew at a fascinating rate. They come to me and they say which one of these tablets would be the easiest to learn how to understand and I can't help but think that that in itself is a defeatist attitude, because it shouldn't be in your mind that you're not going to understand an operating system.

They are made to be user friendly, emphasizing the word user. I always ask these customers do you know why a six-year-old knows more about a tablet or laptop then we do and their answer is always wrong. they say because they grew up with it and that is wrong. The right answer is they have no fear. They have not learned fear as of yet. The question that they should be asking is which one of these tablets is going to bring me the most fun. I guess I'll have to explain myself because most of you are thinking this stuff is not fun. So, just calm down and try and understand a few little basic things of life.

Did you ever see one of those kids in school that just seemed to have a blast with everything the teacher put forth for us to do. Yes, I know they made me sick to, but that's not my point. My point is that they did the very best in school. They seemed to enjoy it the most and made the absolute best grades. Why are we so afraid of technology - because we're afraid of breaking something. The chances of breaking your computer by pushing the wrong key are probably astronomical, especially if you do certain steps to back up your computer before you ever do anything else to it and, every so often, make another backup so that anything that gets lost can be recovered.

Now, the thing that I want you to understand here is that when you were a child and the most fun thing you ever did, you understood backwards and forwards, did you not? The reason is because you approached it with the proper attitude. Attitude is not going change the frustrations that you will experience with the computer because you don't understand something at first, but that old adage, “if you don't succeed at first, try, try again” is absolutely the best mantra to have when you're dealing with a computer or, for that matter, any technology.

In today's technological world there are several operating systems. The major ones being Apple's IOS, Microsoft Windows, Google's android operating system and Linix and all of these operating systems require you to be in control. If you don't understand how to do something and you're getting slightly frustrated with trying to figure out how to make it work go to You Tube, type in a question about what it is that you're trying to do and, I'll assure you, someone has already made a video telling you step-by-step how to do it. I love building computers.

I love working with computers because I find them fun and engaging and I look at every new thing that I try and do as a mystery that I have to solve. Okay, yes, I can hear you back there, sighing, but you don't understand, you've been doing this for ever. That's not true! I'm right at 59 years old and, yes, I was fascinated with technology since the time I was a little boy.  I remember the first radio I had. It was a little transistor Channelmaster radio that, late at night, sometimes could pick up the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, all the way from Memphis. It amazed me that a voice could be transmitted through the air without anyone ever seeing it, how could that be. Television, now there was a mystery. How in the world could “Happy Hal” bring me cartoons at 3:30 every day without fail. Where did he get them, where are they coming from. I looked up in the sky and I couldn't see anything coming to our house, how were they doing it? I figured out it didn't really matter,  I was enjoying it. I wondered why we couldn't get television stations like we did on my transistor radio late at night. Why couldn't I get a Nashville television station? I just chalked it up to the mysteries of the universe which made the universe pretty interesting.

My point is we don't have to understand everything about something to have fun with it. You do need to learn certain things. The first of which is, if you're still alive today, you grew up with technology. If you just don't want technology in your life, I feel sorry for you, you are missing out on so very, very much. If you have grand babies in some faraway state you could use Skype to talk to them, to see them, to enjoy having them in your life. And yes, it's not as good as being there with them, but it's better than nothing, isn't it. You moved away from your family and your mother and you’re missing them greatly. Wouldn't it be nice to have a hangout on Google and talk with the whole family all together.

 Of course, it's a virtual reality and they're not really there with you but you can have the conversations that you used to have at the dinner table with everybody, and how wonderful could that be. Instead of having your family send you pictures through the mail and getting lost or damaged, they could be e-mailed or texted to you right from the very spot, the very second the picture was taken. It's so amazing the technology that's before us today that could affect our lives for the good. I don't want you to think that I believe that every bit of technology is good because it's not. But let me ask you, is anything man has done ever been totally good. There are some security measures that you must learn to take and, yes, sometimes it costs money but there are a lot of free options out there as well so you don't have to let it break your bank. Not all tablets are ultra expensive. You can get a pretty nice tablet nowadays without breaking the bank. There are several under a hundred dollars, tablets that work okay. In saying that, the more expensive tablets definitely do work better but don't let anyone talk you into spending a lot of money on your first device because, first of all, you're not ready for it, and secondly, you may be one of the few that just does not like it.

There are so many options nowadays for television, one of which we've had around since television has been in existence, on an antenna. Yes, it works exactly the same way that it always has. If you have an old CRT type television, which is the great big picture tube type television, you will need a converter box (which you can get at any department store) and an antenna to receive your local television stations and some independent stations are available on the free antenna television. If you have a newer type flat screen, all you need is the antenna, you do not need a converter box to get free over the air antenna television. My goodness, even where I live in the rural area of Sevier County, Tennessee, I get as many as 25 television stations over free antenna television. My favorite is the channel called “meTV”, because it plays all of the old television shows that we all knew and loved when we were growing up. That's technology at its best. I can remember when we had our first television and there were only three television stations to be had in the Memphis area and shortly PBS came about and that was all until cable finally appeared on the horizon.

If you haven't heard of it by now I would like to tell you about “Roku” television streaming system. The first thing you have to have is a Wi-Fi Internet access with a relatively good speed and unlimited access, because streaming movies takes up a lot of bandwidth. So, unless you have unlimited Internet access this technology is not for you but if you do, boy, do I have a television system for you with over 2000+ Internet television channels. If you don't know what Internet television channels are let me preface this by saying that they are nothing like your cable channels and they have nothing to do with them.  It doesn't matter if you have cable, satellite, or whatever, you do not have access to these channels unless you are streaming from an Internet service like a smart TV, a Roku box, or something of that nature. If I have piqued your interest in technology, that is what I wanted to do. I am going to give you more on the ROKU BOX, but let me tell you just one little thing about it before I stop my little story and that is, I have exactly 337 channels and I pay for only one and that's Netflix and all the other channels are totally free. Oh, and that's just the ones that I'm interested in. There are so many more in the Roku channel store that are free but, okay, they're just not something I’m interested in. So do yourself a favor and go to YouTube or even to roku.com and check out a Roku. Remember, you will need a wi fi connection and you will need to pay for the Netflix subscription (cheaper than cable).  And as a point of interest, young people don’t even subscribe to cable, because they get most of their shows on their personal devices and don’t need to pay the high cost of crappy cable.

So if you know someone that is in need of technology to give them more enjoyment of life, especially as we get older and it's necessary to have some sort of entertainment that doesn't cost very much, technology can provide that for us.  Not to mention all of the breakthroughs that technology has given us for medical purposes such as I heard today, doctors are saying that an MP3 player full of music that someone loved when they were growing up , in the era that they grew up in, will help them battle Alzheimer's. So please, the next time you go into a store to buy a tablet, a television, or yes, even one of those dreaded computers, find the most knowledgeable salesperson, and ask which one would be the most fun for you and make his or her day.