Rethinking Technology

Sometimes, I feel like a lumbering dinosaur, refusing to adopt the latest and greatest.  My motto is "just because it's possible doesn't mean it's a good idea."

But sometimes it is a good idea.

My regular readers know that I've been a member of Weight Watchers (WW) since 2012 (with a two year break at one point of time).  It's been a successful program for me.

Part of the program from its beginnings in the 20th century were meetings (nowadays called Workshops) moderated by a leader (nowadays called a Coach).  Before the days of Skype and Zoom these meetings were all in person.  During Covid they went remote and Weight Watchers has since embraced the concept of remote meetings.  

The downside?  In the "old days" you could go out for coffee after meetings with participants you clicked with.  You could exchange recipes and tips.  Sometimes, friendships were formed.  Even if they didn't, you were interacting with real people.

Somewhere along the line, Weight Watchers introduced a social media component in their app called Connect, for members only.  It never appealed to me.  I don't need more social media than I already have.  In fact I'm trying to cut back.  I took the last 10 days or so as a complete blogging break and I also did not go on social media during the break until yesterday. 

Know what?  I didn't even miss the social media although I would have long term, especially as I learn friend and family news (both mine and my spouse's) through Facebook.

This past May, WW introduced a chat function on their tracking app.  The chat groups are private, and moderated.  I lurked from time to time but didn't use the chat.  Until this past Sunday.

And then....but let me back up first.

When I started WW in 2012, I'm not even sure I used an app.  The way their current points system works, that's just about impossible now.  If you try to use the website to track you are encouraged to use the app.  It's harder to do using paper and pencil, which is too bad. 

Now, about that chat feature.

When I first read about it in an email. I wondered: why are we pushed to use social media and apps to communicate?  What ever happened to just regular communication and not communication in the virtual world?  Of course, I use email and have since around 1997. 

Well, without that chat I wouldn't have found out that my WW coach, a WW member for over 30 years and a coach for over 20 (I think), had left suddenly.  We don't know why but we do know WW has been changing directions for a year or more.  This is not a place to discuss this, but I wonder what happened to make a longtime employee of the organization quit.

The people in the meetings she moderated are wondering that also.  There is a lot of heartbreak - it's obvious that our coach touched the lives of many of us.  I'm one of them.

Sometimes it's good to be old fashioned.

But it's also good to embrace change and technology.  Email, for me, is wonderful.  Chat has its place, too.  I was able to get in touch with my now-former coach and thank her.  Thank you, chat. 

Meanwhile, I am back from my blogging break, but still not sure about my blogging schedule going forward.  I will probably blog daily this week.  After that, I'm still not sure.

Whatever I decide, I thank you, my reader, for sticking with me.