EMBARRASSING CONFESSIONS OF A CERTIFIED TECHNODUNCE

  

Because I am a certified Technodunce (just ask any member of my family or my former students), so many things that everyone else seems to know come as total news to me. And although I speak a number of foreign languages, Facebook, which has its own vocabulary, has not been one of them. Terms that fluent speakers of FB know—Timelines? Notifications? Status? Duh...I need to look them up. Ditto for all those cute little emoticons. 

 

Where I live in Italy, the eloquent expression, “Piano, piano” pops up all the time. I have been a pianist for most of my life, but that has nothing to do with the meaning of “Piano, piano,” or its supposedly reassuring synonyms, “Tranquillo,” and “Con calma”—all of which are more musical ways of saying “Don’t get your knickers in a twist”; “relax”; “no worries”; “all in due time.”  

 

But when it comes to “social media” (?), I am facing a stiff learning curve. And as a septuagenarian who has just had her first book come out, I have a lot of catching up to do.