Siri on my Mac

As we age, hearing is often impacted. Despite the massive improvements in hearing aid technology, many people buy them, and set them aside. I'll bet you have a friend, or relative, that has done that. Part of the reason is that we are under-using our ears. Despite the fact our heritage is the "oral tradition", today we consume most of what we learn/know via our eyes by reading and other visual stimulation.

One of my New Years Resolutions was to learn to use the "smart speaker" technology. The dictation function that comes with my Mac allows me to speak to my computer in a way that is useful. I have an additional incentive; I have overused my hands typing on keyboards and will need to have my tendons scrapped at some point. Anything I can do to delay that is gravy. Dictation is how I wrote the draft of this post. It is a learning experience, and I hope both my Mac and I improve.

I also committed to try to use the intelligent assistants, Siri and Alexa. I purchased an Amazon Kindle Fire pad. It didn't cost much, about $40.00 if I recall, and I haven't gotten much out of it so far. Working with Alexa, I found she's very good looking up the local weather, the stock market, the news, and setting alarms. I have not had much success in ordering from Amazon with Alexa, even with repeat orders, though I have done it.

Because of privacy concerns, I shut the fire pad down when not using it. I have even removed it from the room in business meetings. The general consensus of technical writers is that Alexa is the most advanced of the smart assistants. I have not seen that yet, but it could well be that I am so far down the learning curve.

I've been working with Siri on my phone. This is also of marginal use so far, but I have friends that model what is possible and that motivates me to keep trying.  I have learned to make sure critical phone numbers such as the Kauai police non-emergency are in my contacts, or there is no hope, Siri, has problems with Hawaiian words. 

Today, I enabled Siri on my Mac. In early testing it does not seem to work as well as the iPhone. The problem, when it does not work well is that you want to quit trying, but I will press on at least for a while.

Another factor, is that when we age, we need to exercise our minds. Working with the hearing and speech part of our brains is part of that.

To summarize. I think it is important for each of us to learn to use these technologies. At first, the benefits seem marginal, but when I consider the health of my brain, the longevity of my hands, and the fact that I may actually be able to add efficiency to my life, I think it is worth the effort.