Android to Apple challenges patience

In this latest installment of “Old Dog, New Tricks,” which is my life, I purchased a new phone. That news in and of itself is not remarkable. Making a change and feeling like my head would explode was mildly amusing.

I’ve owned a cellphone since the mid-'90s; in fact, I’ve had the same cell number for three decades. My first phone made and received calls and was capable of the most rudimentary text/SMS messages. It would be years until mainstream and affordable cellphones became smart or until I would upgrade to one. Now my reliance upon the little electronic computer is all-encompassing. 

I never gave much thought to variations in my Samsung phones through the years. At some point in the last decade, I stopped carrying my actual Canon camera due to the quality of my phone’s camera and the ease of editing and using/sharing those photos in real time. 

I’d pondered switching to an iPhone the past year or so, encouraged by my daughter and the fact that it seems the majority of our family uses them. I was the odd man out on FaceTime visits for one. A few weeks ago, I made the leap. My shiny new iPhone Air arrived and then came the ordeal of changing everything over, while gifting my Samsung Galaxy phone to my husband and getting his old phone switched over.  

I was absolutely not prepared for the challenge of having buttons on both sides of the phone, for swiping up instead of across, just all of the things I accomplished on my Samsung without having to think about it, now feeling alien. The learning curve is more like a terrifying leap off the Space Needle. 

When I lamented my struggles, my Facebook village weighed in, making me realize there are definitely die-hard camps of Android and iPhone users. The comments made me smile. There’s no middle ground. There’s also a solid majority of people who similarly struggled making the change from one to the other. Left brain, right brain. 

At this stage of my Boomerdom, I’ve developed enough self-awareness to know I don’t do change well and patience is not one of my virtues.  

Hey, you kids, get off my lawn! 

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Happy Birthday today to McKinley Thompson, Jill Monroe, Steve Shepperd, Susie Bingham, Persia Moser, Abbie Nowland and Diana Raugust. Tomorrow, Amy Boni, Teri Nipp, Kandi Johnson, Brock Bauman, Rebekah Newbry, Samantha Kraack, Helga Wernicke, Julia Jaworski and Rob Colvin will celebrate. On Friday, birthday cake’s on the menu for Bette Price, Maycie Goodlander, Barb Eveland, Phil Romans and Jared White. Saturday’s celebrants are Megan Reagan, Diane Zell, Jerry Moss, Paige Watkins and Donna Pfeiffer. Feb. 22 is the big day for Mark Sales, Tami Crawford, Joseph Louck, Billie Jo Campbell, Jim Clark and Jack Lash. On Monday, Corinna Hunter, Sydney Knox, Janet Curry, Shawn Telford, Diane Mort, Louise Robeson, Bill Kaufman, Holly McNee, Denise Wilbanks and Marion Brendis take another trip around the sun. Ingrid Allen, Sheila Wooley, Betty Leonard, Tamara Booth and Barb Koerner take a spin on the birthday-go-round Feb. 24. 

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a former publisher/editor in the Hagadone Newspaper division. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press. Kerri can be reached on Facebook or via email at [email protected].