So I'm waiting at the ATM behind this woman who is older, but not that old. Maybe she's in her late 50s/early 60s. But still, this is obviously the first time she has ever used an ATM. She inserts her card, reads the screen that tells her to quickly insert and remove the card, then slowly pulls the card out. It doesn't work. She inserts the card again, reads the same screen again, with her finger slowly tracing each line, and again it doesn't work. She sighs. Tries again, this time gets the hang of it, and suddenly she's boldly using 1980s technology.

At each screen, she does the same thing, slowly reading each line with her finger moving across the screen. She sighs two or three more times, somewhat baffled. Eventually she gets her money, which is something like $140. I hope she actually wanted that much.

One thing that scares me about aging is the idea of being left behind by technology. The idea of standing confused and helpless at a device that most people could use with their eyes closed. I try to stay current. But today, the trend is that most developing technology is social technology. And if your peer groups don't stay current, you might not be able to either.

I don't know any 50-year-olds who use text messaging. They don't get it, nor do they understand the use for it. Not every piece of information requires a conversation. Sometimes, most times, "I'll be there at 10," is all you need to say. While leisurely conversations are nice, I don't need to take the afternoon off and arrange a coffee date to tell someone that I'm standing behind an albino at Walgreens. All you need to know is that I saw an albino and I thought of you. Texting is like a greeting card for absolutely every occasion. It's fun and kind, and it lets you stay in contact with people you like when you otherwise wouldn't be able to. Still, there seems to be an age-cap on its use.

Back when I was a kid, we actually rented our phone from the phone company. It was a big, black thing that was attached to the wall with screws and directly wired into the phone line. It had a dial, not buttons (touch-tone service actually required an additional monthly charge in those days). One day as I was running around like a maniac, I blindly ran into the three-foot cord as my mom was talking. The receiver flew out of her hand as the cord wrapped around my neck and slammed me into the wall. The cord tore out of the phone, and I got a scrape on my neck.

A few days later, the phone company came out and replaced our rented 1960s phone with a somewhat modern phone. It still had a dial, but it was made of light plastic and it was yellow. Also, you could detach it from the wall if you wanted to. They replaced the upstairs phone with a similar model, albeit in the classic black. My parents bought those phones outright and never rented a phone again.

The thing is, to this day you still hear about old people renting phones. If you don't call the phone company specifically and tell them you want to spend $8.99 on a new phone at Kmart, they won't suggest it. One elderly woman in the news recently was reported to have paid something like $14,000 on phone rental throughout her lifetime.

When her children found out, they discontinued the rental and bought her a new phone. And you just know that she hated that new phone. It probably had screen for caller ID and tiny little buttons. It was probably cordless. I'm sure that she misplaces it all the time and every time she uses it she feels a little bit terrified.

The above link states that AT&T still rents phones to about 750,000 people nationwide. The idea seems beyond absurd.

At what point does this happen to you? When does the world shift exponentially beyond your grasp?

Please let it not happen to me.