Four short years ago, I visited Best Buy in search of a new computer to take with me as I left The Villages to move on to Orlando for college. I didn’t need assistance, I knew what I was looking for as I scoured the few rows of remaining desktops and the occasional table featuring laptops with the newly released Windows 7.
Today, I entered that same Best Buy, but with a different goal at hand: finding a new computer for my grandma.
I’m a child of the digital age, I’ve become accustomed to the digital advances in every part of our fast-moving world, yet even I was surprised at what lay before me. The words “Touch Screen” accompany nearly every computer and laptop in sight as I move between the tables trying to find something suitable for my grandma’s needs in the 60 or so models in front of me. Maybe 15 are what I would deem suitable for her.
I start looking at specs, figuring out what our options are. My grandma doesn’t feel that a laptop is what she needs, so we move toward the single row of desktop computers hoping we get lucky in one of the six models that are in front of us. I check stats, screen sizes and availability while keeping in mind that it needs to be what my grandma wants.
A young man helps us, going over the same specs I recited off to him while my grandma reiterates her feelings on laptops. I can’t get over how far things have come in the few years since I was in this very Best Buy. Tables of mouse controlled laptops filled the tables, tablets and “live tiles” didn’t even exist and desktops weren’t part of the past.
Finally we choose an HP desktop and now we have an entirely new hill to climb — learning Windows 8.
Megan Williams writes for Villages-News.com and is the granddaughter of Karen Nehrenz of the Village of Rio Grande.