Is it my age or what!!!

beyond the blue

beyond the blue

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,036
Name
Neil
Edit My Images
Yes
I bought a new flashgun about 3 weeks ago and after a few days I managed to figure out how most of it worked........The week after I bought Lightroom 4 and it took about a week to figure out how most of it worked......Last week I bought a new lens and after a day I figured out how most of it worked....This week I've been working a lot so have not had time to pick up the camera until today, and guess what, I have absolutely no idea how the flashgun works, can't remember a thing about Lightroom and I'm sat here looking at the lens as if I've never seen it before.:shrug:
 
Don't worry, it's definitely an age thing. I live in a perpetual state of blissful ignorance and forgetfulness..... Eerrrr ... What were we on about again ....??!
 
Learning at past your prime (50 is looming for me next year!) is like anything else...........it takes a little longer but you get there in the end and often more satisfactorily :)
 
Enjoy the short-term memory loss. Life presents new challenges every few minutes. :D

You could always ask a six year old for advice. They are always far more savvy than meon technical matters.
 
Ok, I'm trying to make light of it but if I'm honest its getting me down a bit. I have no problem remembering things I learnt years ago but trying to get my head around new tech is getting harder and harder. My wife is always saying "why do you bother getting these things you can't work" but if I listened to her I would be little more than a caveman.
 
Some of use refer to them as Senior Moments and they become more frequent as you get older.
It's one of Life's little games that you remember things from years back but cannot remember what you did last weekend
Dave
 
Last edited:
You are not alone Neil. As my brain cells become fewer I have noticed a distinct slowing of my learning rate. It doesn't particularly bother me, but I also think some technical kit gets so complicated and manuals seem so basic that I refuse to accept full responsibility.
 
For a year or so now I have found the same. I struggle to get something to work but with the help of a few google searches I get there. Then at a later date I find myself struggling with something so off I go to google only to find as I type in my search it presents the precise search I had previously entered the last time I was stuck at the same point :/
 
beyond the blue said:
Ok, I'm trying to make light of it but if I'm honest its getting me down a bit. I have no problem remembering things I learnt years ago but trying to get my head around new tech is getting harder and harder. My wife is always saying "why do you bother getting these things you can't work" but if I listened to her I would be little more than a caveman.
Click to expand...

How much time have you A) spent reading manuals, books, tutorials etc... and B) Actually putting that knowledge into practice by using stuff?

Practice is the key. The practical application of learning stuff... the best way to make it stick.
 
I've hit this age too. If I leave it a while between photography trips I forget how to use my camera, and find myself doing the puzzled stare at it trying to remember how to change the ISO or whatever...
 
It's got to be an age thing. Even in my 30's I need to constantly repeat things in order to keep them fresh. I was without a computer for a few weeks this year and returning to Photoshop felt like learning it all over again. Despite using it for over a decade.
 
Neil

What it is is technology is moving far faster than us older generations are used to.Don't even try and explain what an MP3 player is or does let alone an Ipad, and to be honest I don't give a stuff.

As long as I have a warm bed to lie in-a good meal- and wife to look after me and a camera , the rest of the world of high tech can take a running jump. As for mobile phones, as long as I can make and receive a phone call I just cannot understand why you would want something called a app, be that what it may.

it takes so long to learn new fanged electronic things that in actual fact it is quicker to do things the old fashioned way

Realspeed
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure it's age related. Learning new things when older is more difficult, yeah.. tons of research evidence to back that up, but keeping current is about also maintaining an interest. I'm 45 now, but I still grew up with technology. I got my first home computer when I was 11. I've gown up with computers and still maintain an interest in technology.

If you're not interested enough to use new technology, then it will pass you by... because you're not using it. As realspeed said above... he doesn't give a stuff. So obviously he's not going to know anything about it. It's not because of his age though... it's because he doesn't give a stuff :)
 
David
1 have been through the clockwork wind up watch era- the slide rule era- the pre decimal age era -seen the change from turbo prob to the first jet (comet) passanger plane right through to men on the moon. Changed from 35mm cameras to digital - cars -when car a heater or radio was an extra not the norm. Cars with vaccuum wiper blades that stopped if one accelerated and auto boxes was a thing in the future. TV's were 9" black and white (if ones parents could afford one).

So I think I have seen more changes in my life than others that are younger. The result is all that in the past is no longer wanted or useful and that's what's happening in the digital electronic age. As soon as you learn one thing its replaced with something else, take mobile phones as a good example.l

So now I try and learn enough to understand the basics but to try and learn everything is pointless.

Realspeed
 
realspeed said:
So I think I have seen more changes in my life than others that are younger. The result is all that in the past is no longer wanted or useful and that's what's happening in the digital electronic age.
Click to expand...


I'm agreeing with you.

There will be some things you have kept up to date with though despite this, and it's probably the stuff that you're very interested in. I'm saying it's not always age that means you don't know everything about the latest dooh dah or whatsit... it's interest. There's plenty of new developments in certain areas I know nothing about. It's not because I'm no longer 25... it's because I'm not interested enough to update my knowledge.... so what I do know, is now obsolete. It will be very hard to get back up to speed, because I just don't have the motivation to do it. It's too difficult.

Age is usually only an issue when learning something new means unlearning what you used to know as that can cause a cognitive dissonance that can cause problems later in life. Generally, learning new things is a slower process as you get older though, but there's no reason why age should stop someone learning new things. If it was, there'd be no one involved in any high level research past the age of 40 :) Some of the best theoretical physicists right now... are over 60 years of age.
 
For me a few years ago it would be 'read the manual once, remember it all'. Now twenty years later it's read the manual once, forget most of it and wing it till I get used to using it. I try my best to keep up with technology but I'm losing the battle with the latest phones and tabs. Just too much on them for me to bother with, I don't use 90% of the icons on my phone and probably never will.

Still it could be worse, my dad still can't even change the time on his video recorder (VHS), I have to go down twice a year to change it for him. He did manage to find out how to set the timer a couple of months ago though, after about 15 years of trying lol.
 
I think part of the problem is the younger generation seem to have a better understanding of the techie side of things than we ever did and the manufacturers are basing there products with this in mind.
Around 15 years ago i had a good knowledge of most (if not all) of the technology around at the time, then it all seemed to pick up pace and i just gave up trying to keep up, now i just accept i am middle aged and not going to get any younger.

I still get called a :geek: every now and again though. :)
 
As David said, use it or lose it. I'm getting on a bit, David was till at primary school when I was at university.
I sort things out for my computer savvy kids, but I have a background in computing and systems analysis- though I'm a plumber now!

Keep an interest in something and it never goes away.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top