Last week I learned to text message.  If you are not familiar with text messaging, it is like sending an e-mail using your phone.  Learning to text message may not sound like a big technological accomplishment, but after I successfully sent my first text and received a reply I felt like I had truly entered the digital age.

I communicate with e-mail, search with Google, order online and create PowerPoints for presentations, but I am not what you would call a technology wizard.  I am so technologically limited that the IT director at our College uses me as his communication guinea pig.  I read his IT updates before he distributes them.  If I understand his technology directions, he feels confident everyone else in the College will as well.

But I quickly and easily learned to text, so I am definitely feeling more technologically confident.   I was on a conference call with six other colleagues about my age, and we were trying to find a solution to a communication problem.  I suggested text messaging because I was feeling pretty confident about my new skill, and it really would be the perfect solution.  Every person on the call said they didn’t text message; they were too old.  Their comments really reminded me of the importance of continuing to learn new skills regardless of our age. 

A year ago, I didn’t think I would learn to text message.  Why would I want to-most people my age didn’t text message.  But my daughter does, and I wanted to be able to communicate with her.  So I learned to text message, and I’m feeling pretty good about the whole process.  Now I’m thinking about what other technology skill I might want to explore.