The amusing and confusing technology era

JAKARTA (JP): "I don't want to be a dinosaur," announced Mia one day. "I want to be ready for the new millennium, I want to be computer literate and I am going to be on the Internet. Very soon, we won't have to call each other anymore, we will e-mail each other."

These words sent me into a state of panic. There had always been rivalry between us, and I felt that this too was part of the competition. I have been using computers for years and have always felt a one-upmanship toward my friends. In organizations I am always made secretary, because I can make reports faster and neater than others. And I was proud to show I had learned my lessons well.

When the Internet was invented, I felt like I lived in a different world. I was in cyberspace and surfed the net. Instead of watching the news, I logged in to www.cnn.com and www.kompas.com. I still subscribe to newspapers because I can't get the death announcements through the Internet. At my age, many of my contemporaries die and I want to be informed about it in case I want to pay them my last respects.

Mia kept me informed of her progress by e-mail. She learned word-processing and did data bases, which I already knew. But when she learned to do a spreadsheet I quickly looked it up in the books, because I had forgotten how to do it.

And so it went on until one day I received a fax from her asking me to do our organization's newsletter with her. This fax was followed by another, then another, until 10 faxes had arrived, all with the same content.

When I called her to ask for an explanation, she seemed surprised. "Did you get them all?" she asked. "I tried once and nothing happened, so I tried again and again until suddenly there was a message saying the fax was going to transmit the message. Then there was another and another one and another..., I couldn't stop them."

Thus I had some explaining to do and felt the big sister again. We agreed on a time to do the newsletter, but when I arrived she was playing a game. "Quiet," she said, "this is going to be a good score". And she continued, frantically, as if all her life depended on that good score. When it was finally over she started lecturing me about that game and other games.

"These computer games are really exciting. Just imagine, I have this patience game for two sets of cards. If you want to move a card, you just click with your mouse. Just like that. When you play it normally, you will have to arrange two sets of cards and then move them every time." She gave me a demonstration. But I was not impressed.

"You can't cheat with a computer, so it will always win," I said. So we stopped playing and started to work.

For the next session she decided to come to my house. When she arrived I knew why. She drove her brand new silver colored BMW. It was automatic and so easy to drive! Needless to say I was baffled. This time she was the boss. I could never afford to buy such a nice car and neither could my husband. But I was happy for her and suggested we go for a ride. After we finished work, we went to the car and again she showed me how to open it by aiming the key to a sensor inside the car. The smell of the leather seats was so nice and the seats so comfortable, I could fall asleep right away. But no, I did not get the opportunity. Mia wanted to start the car, but the key would not budge. She tried to adjust the gear shift, but it did not work. She pushed the brake pedal and tried again, nothing helped. Again she tried and tried and became desperate.

I suggested she called BMW's 24 hour service. We looked up the number and within half an hour a man arrived. He went inside, shook the steering wheel twice and like magic..., the car could be started!

Mia herself was so happy she did not know whether to laugh or cry. And I just got in the car quickly so as not to miss my free ride. We took off, and when I heard Mia saying: "Promise me not to tell anybody about it, OK?", I did not answer and pretended to have fallen asleep.

-- Myra Sidharta