For this post, I am not going to cover a specific topic, but really give my biggest overall advice on how to properly use and utilize technology.  And that is sometimes you have to overcome your fears and just start playing with that new tool you have been putting off for a while.

The days of products coming with intricate manuals and tutorials are gone and most of these new devices expect the user to just “figure it out”, but in my experience most adults are not comfortable with technology and are afraid to do so.  They are scared that if they click on the wrong button or agree to the wrong setting that they will screw up everything and/or break the device.

Well my question to you is have you ever watched a child play with a new technology device?

They don’t ask questions, they have no fear and typically they just figure it out as a process of trial and error.  It is not because as many of us more mature users may believe, “that they are just born this way” and that somehow through evolution they now have a mutated gene that allows them to innately know how to use these new technology tools.  The fact is they just aren’t scared and just play with the device until they figure it out.  Or if by chance they can’t figure it out, they are not scared to ask someone for help, search online for an answer, jump into a forum or this amazing teacher of everything called YouTube.  Now don’t get me wrong, they do have an advantage that they have been around these technologies since their inception, but in general they excel at using these tools because they are more open and wiling to learn how to do so.

And if you think I am just saying this as a “younger user”, realize that when I left for college I had never turned on a computer and by the time I graduated 4-years later I was teaching classes on how to use them.  And I got that way by playing and figuring things out on my own.

So my first golden tip I would like to bestow on you is to make 2014 the year you overcome your fears.  Dust off that device or app that you have been resisting learning how to use and just start playing until you figure it out.

Or if that doesn’t do it, realize you have a lot of resources available to you such as YouTube, Google, your friends/co-workers and of course the RETI.us website where we have hundreds of video tutorials, product reviews and more to help you learn technology at your own pace!