Technogeek – Not So Much…

Sketch by my daughter, Amy

Okay at the outset I’m going to make an excuse – I have been very ill for the past year and haven’t been out and about much. Considering that they say that technology advances in a matter of months, weeks even, I can be excused for not being up to date.

I went to the bank the other day to withdraw money from the ATM and they looked nothing like I remember them. After standing in front of four different machines I decided that this was a trend: no matter how hard I looked, I wasn’t going to find a machine I recognized. I considered mentioning to the bank manager that their machines had metamorphosized into some kind of robot that could possibly be of danger to humankind, but thought better of it.

Eventually I decided to gingerly approach one of these robots or consider being stuck in the shopping centre forever, unable to pay for parking. I walked slowly, and bravely I might add, towards the machine completely ignoring the strange looks I was being given. I considered greeting it but wasn’t sure if that was the done thing these days. Once I was close enough to actually use the machine it immediately told me that I could bank without a card. WHAT?!? I was standing there, card in hand, and as far as I could remember I used to put that card into the machine before it would give me money.

Now what? Are you supposed to ask it politely? After staring for what seemed like hours at the machine I discovered something familiar – a card slot. What a relief! My heart rate slowed a bit and the sweat slowed to a trickle. I hesitantly put my card into the slot and it disappeared. Now this is what used to happen but I wasn’t sure. At the machine’s request I punched in my PIN and waited. It asked me how much I required and by that stage I had completely forgotten why I was drawing money in the first place, let alone how much. So I guessed, then waited.

What a relief, the card came back to me and the machine very kindly handed me the money – well not literally – apparently you still have to take it yourself. I looked around wondering if it was okay to leave now and desperately searched for a bench on which to sit to get my vitals back to normal. A few deep breaths later I was on my way and very proud. Not only had I withdrawn money, but I had paid for parking and successfully exited the parking garage. I was behind the wheel of another, probably more dangerous, machine but after what I had been through, the trip home was an absolute cinch.