{"id":35057,"date":"2022-02-05T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T08:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=35057"},"modified":"2026-06-06T09:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T09:58:20","slug":"i-called-tech-support-and-got-ageism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/i-called-tech-support-and-got-ageism\/","title":{"rendered":"Widowed: I Called Tech Support and Got Ageism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"for<\/a>
An incoming call was ringing on my new Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra smart phone. I touched the green icon, but it didn’t respond. I touched and swiped again and again. Nothing. So I called ATT tech support and got — ageism. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My old smart phone had reached its sell-by date. Beginning in February, it would no longer work with ATT’s new 4G system. So I bought myself a brand new, very spiffy Samsung S21Ultra 5G, and now it was time to hook it up. I’d need some help, so I called ATT tech support — and got ageism.<\/p>\n

The project took the better part of an afternoon and I had to phone ATT tech support several times as the process unfolded.<\/p>\n

Each time I called I got great help. All the techies I talked to at ATT were women. All spoke with gentle, unmistakably southern accents. Was ATT tech support located in the South, I wondered? Yes, indeed, said one of the techies. She was talking to me from Alabama.<\/p>\n

Things went great until the last of the ATT techies tried to test my telephone connection.<\/p>\n

My New Smart Phone Is Touchy<\/strong><\/h5>\n

She dialed my number. My cell phone rang. A green telephone icon appeared.<\/p>\n

I touched the icon. Nothing happened.<\/p>\n

I swiped the icon. Nothing happened.<\/p>\n

I swiped the icon faster. Then slower. In this direction. Then that.<\/p>\n

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.<\/p>\n

“Can someone come over to your house and help you, one of your neighbors?” the Techie said.<\/p>\n

I said no. If ATT tech support couldn’t make my phone work, neither could my neighbors.<\/p>\n

The techie dialed my cell phone a few more times.<\/p>\n

I touched. I pressed. I swiped.<\/p>\n

Nothing.<\/p>\n

Finally, she said, “Are you sure you can’t get a neighbor to come help you? Someone younger?”<\/p>\n

Someone younger?<\/p>\n

I Called Tech Support and I Got Ageism<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I hung up the phone on the ATT techie. I wish I hadn’t.<\/p>\n

Hanging up on someone is rude. Besides, I robbed myself of a chance to tell her she was patronizing me, that she making assumptions about me that did not apply. She probably knew all about sexism and racism. I wanted her to know about ageism.<\/p>\n

Days later, I was back on the phone. This time with a Samsung techie, a woman again, but this one in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

The diagnosis took minutes. The screen sensitivity on my phone needed calibration, she said.<\/p>\n

The fix took a big chunk of yet another day. But now, like me, my new smart phone was smart enough to accept a simple phone call.<\/p>\n

Try Hand Lotion<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The techie in the Philippines tossed off some parting advice as we said good-bye: try using hand lotion, she said. That might make the screen more sensitive to my touch.<\/p>\n

With that, I did an internet search for “fingertips and touch screens” and found a guy named Gabe Fender, who bills himself as a digital inclusion volunteer.<\/p>\n

In working with an 88-year-old woman he calls Edna, Gabe noticed that Edna was having trouble making the touch screen on her tablet work. Gabe did some investigating and learned that many older people were having trouble with their touch screens — the problem was with the temperature and moisture in their fingers.<\/p>\n

Gabe fixed Edna up with a stylus pen for her tablet, and she was off and running.<\/p>\n

So. Maybe the techie in the South was right. Maybe I do need to get one of my neighbors over here, somebody with warm and juicy fingertips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Somebody young.<\/p>\n

That or spit on my finger.<\/p>\n

More about keeping my self-esteem intact at “Widowed. Or How to Wrestle a Christmas Tree Into Its Stand Without Calling the Neighbors.”<\/a>  You might also like, “Widowed. Life Goes on and Some of Us Still Like It.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra<\/a><\/p>\n

I called tech support and got ageism. ‘Why don’t you get someone younger to help you?’ said the otherwise very nice techie. Read more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2561,2562,103,2563,34,82,2564,2565,2419],"class_list":["post-35057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-widowed","tag-4g","tag-ageism","tag-aging","tag-att","tag-dont-miss","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra","tag-techies","tag-widowed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49363,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35057\/revisions\/49363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}