On a dump with Grandpa Vasil. About computer literacy and brutish citizens

I wish all good people well, Grandpa Vasil is with you again. Today I will not so much grumble as share discoveries. In my old age, something happened to me that has been talked about for so long. No, not the Bolsheviks, but my younger relatives.

They, the scoundrels, decided (and how the tongue turned to such a bluff!) that “it is time to digitize grandfather.” The grandson put it that way, and the son translated it into human and explained that I should join the world of high technology. That is, to master computer literacy, or it is difficult to talk with me on modern topics. Well, yes, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, I don't know any bellemes in your Internet and messengers. I never needed it: tea, life has already been lived without all this electronic wisdom. Get off the old man!

But then I found a braid on a stone: if the smartphone still managed to fight off (my old button bell is cute and more convenient), then the computer did not work. First, the son decided that the best way to get rid of an old laptop was to hand it over as a gift to an even older father. Secondly, I was partly to blame for this, boasting, even in my opinion, that we had a free computer literacy circle for the elderly at the social service in the district center. “You see how wonderful it all is!” he said. I had to go to school like a schoolboy

It’s not that I’m completely dark: I’ve seen a computer in movies and in life. I knew what it was for. But when I got to know this thing, I was a little bit surprised at first. The thing, of course, is absolutely demonic about your computer. I remember the first thing I was surprised that the colored icons on the screen are officially called icons. Well, I thought, my grandmother can't hear that. She would quickly explain to these nonchristians what icons are and where they should be in the hut. It was also surprising that the plastic rogue on the table, with which the arrow is moved on the screen, is quite seriously called a mouse. And the teacher, when she explained this to us, never even smiled. For some reason, garbage should be stored on the table, there is even a special basket drawn for it. In general, I have experienced many discoveries in recent months, even at some point it seemed that I would never master this wisdom. Some things contradict my entire life experience. You may not even think about it, but I'm used to the fact that you can't erase ink from paper without a trace. In the computer, you write words, you make a mistake - and immediately correct everything, as if there was no miss. I am used to having to go to the city, to the library, to turn dozens of volumes of heavy encyclopedias, and then I wrote a request, pressed a single button, and half a second before you all the wisdom of mankind. You have no idea how magical it all seems to an old man! Show me these wonders 50 years ago, and I would have walked half a century in awe of the magnitude of human genius and the magic of engineering. And you don't appreciate... To you, these limitless discoveries seem natural and even ordinary.

But don’t appreciate, as it turns out, not just that. A little familiarized with the crazy streams of information that descend on me as I mastered computer skills, I discovered how many different kinds of holidays take place in your cities. In Minsk, for example, only in September one festival can not be counted. Festivals of science, Mexican culture, culinary festival and festival of professions. And half marathon, concerts, exhibitions... What is surprising is that there are those who do not like it! “The whole botanical garden has been mutilated with tents, you can’t even see flowers!” someone wrote about the Science Festival. “In the center of the city can not pass, blocked traffic, who needs this senseless running!” – this is another writes about the half marathon. How many of us, it turns out, are whining for any reason people who even a solid holiday is not in joy! You should sit there with a smile and be jealous of yourself. And the day of the city on the nose, autumn fairs, and then the film festival ... How gruff I am, but many Minsk residents, as it turned out, are able to give odds even to grandfather Vasil!

Oh, I promised not to grumble today. It didn't work out