Instagram…why do I have to learn that? Well, so I’m told, the demographics of middle grade kids (for whom I write books) has them all Instagramming. Apparently Facebook is dead to them, and Twitter is only a niche thing…blah, blah, blah… you can look it all up here http://pando.com/2015/01/07/if-youre-over-20-you-dont-get-social-but-this-kid-can-teach-you/ a good article on Social Media used by kids.
I’d actually feel old, but I know that computers and electronics trend for two or three years tops, so even people in their early twenties who don’t keep up will shortly be out of date, old, behind the times, irrelevant. So, really, the advantage of being a techie in his fifties is multigenerational tech experience. I’ve been out of date, old, behind the times, irrelevant many times before and I know that catching up is usually not a bigee. I can be young again (smiley face emoticon)…well, for a year, or two, or three until things change again. I’ve really just started bothering with Facebook and already it’s out of date. Mah, what can you do?
Okay, so Instagram. Absolute pain in the neck so far. I needed to use my smartphone to set it up. Why couldn’t I just do it from the laptop? Grrr, I’m still good with laptops. I only use my smartphone for phoning really. Sometimes when I’m away from home I turn on the data so that I can check my email, oh, and I do use it as an alarm…and a watch – it makes a good watch, I always used to bust watches – but apart from that there’s a whole lot of functionality that I wasn’t even curious about. Yeah, I did say it was a smart phone, but it’s an older one, a Galaxy Ace 2x - ancient. I have a really good (and I mean, really good) plan with it, so I’m not in a hurry to upgrade. I spent half of yesterday just trying to find out what sort of phone I had, because the only thing it said on the outside of the phone was Samsung, absolutely nothing more. Figured it out in the end, it was listed under the settings app, and then under ‘device’ but you had to scroll down to find it. Really well hidden it was.
Anyway, I had to find out what sort of phone I had to help work out why I couldn’t find Instagram in the Galaxy App store. It turns out that I probably couldn’t find it because it comes as a standard feature for this particular phone with most carriers…except mine. Yeah, that's the price I pay for not paying the price of a standard plan, no Instagram. Wouldn’t even have cared, except I have to ‘interact’ with my book demographics. Yeah well, I had some choice phrases for the publisher yesterday about that.
Long story short, I didn’t even have an app for the Google Play app store – that’s where I needed to get Instagram from. That really should have been the end of the story - stymied again by my cheap carrier - except, I found a backdoor. The GPS navigator (which I did have) was actually a Google Play product, upgrades of that were available through a Google Play link...and so was everything else. Excellent! Ha, I was in, I had it beat. I got Instagram loaded when I wasn’t supposed to. Don’t know if it works yet, but it’s on my phone.
Oh, and bonus, I finally worked out how to use my phone as a flashlight. It has a widget for that (I’d always assumed it would be an app). Now next time I go to a Katy Perry concert with my daughters, I’ll be able to hold it up with the light on and wave it around, instead of feeling socially awkward because I don’t know how to get the light to work on my phone. By tomorrow, I should be totally tech on Instagram, I figure I’ll have a good nine months before I’m out of date, old, behind the times, irrelevant, again. Facebook is already dead, who knew?
I’d actually feel old, but I know that computers and electronics trend for two or three years tops, so even people in their early twenties who don’t keep up will shortly be out of date, old, behind the times, irrelevant. So, really, the advantage of being a techie in his fifties is multigenerational tech experience. I’ve been out of date, old, behind the times, irrelevant many times before and I know that catching up is usually not a bigee. I can be young again (smiley face emoticon)…well, for a year, or two, or three until things change again. I’ve really just started bothering with Facebook and already it’s out of date. Mah, what can you do?
Okay, so Instagram. Absolute pain in the neck so far. I needed to use my smartphone to set it up. Why couldn’t I just do it from the laptop? Grrr, I’m still good with laptops. I only use my smartphone for phoning really. Sometimes when I’m away from home I turn on the data so that I can check my email, oh, and I do use it as an alarm…and a watch – it makes a good watch, I always used to bust watches – but apart from that there’s a whole lot of functionality that I wasn’t even curious about. Yeah, I did say it was a smart phone, but it’s an older one, a Galaxy Ace 2x - ancient. I have a really good (and I mean, really good) plan with it, so I’m not in a hurry to upgrade. I spent half of yesterday just trying to find out what sort of phone I had, because the only thing it said on the outside of the phone was Samsung, absolutely nothing more. Figured it out in the end, it was listed under the settings app, and then under ‘device’ but you had to scroll down to find it. Really well hidden it was.
Anyway, I had to find out what sort of phone I had to help work out why I couldn’t find Instagram in the Galaxy App store. It turns out that I probably couldn’t find it because it comes as a standard feature for this particular phone with most carriers…except mine. Yeah, that's the price I pay for not paying the price of a standard plan, no Instagram. Wouldn’t even have cared, except I have to ‘interact’ with my book demographics. Yeah well, I had some choice phrases for the publisher yesterday about that.
Long story short, I didn’t even have an app for the Google Play app store – that’s where I needed to get Instagram from. That really should have been the end of the story - stymied again by my cheap carrier - except, I found a backdoor. The GPS navigator (which I did have) was actually a Google Play product, upgrades of that were available through a Google Play link...and so was everything else. Excellent! Ha, I was in, I had it beat. I got Instagram loaded when I wasn’t supposed to. Don’t know if it works yet, but it’s on my phone.
Oh, and bonus, I finally worked out how to use my phone as a flashlight. It has a widget for that (I’d always assumed it would be an app). Now next time I go to a Katy Perry concert with my daughters, I’ll be able to hold it up with the light on and wave it around, instead of feeling socially awkward because I don’t know how to get the light to work on my phone. By tomorrow, I should be totally tech on Instagram, I figure I’ll have a good nine months before I’m out of date, old, behind the times, irrelevant, again. Facebook is already dead, who knew?
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