Late to the party
I Didn’t “Grow Up With Tech” Either
In 2009, I had what most people would call a comfortable job.
I worked at Tribune Media Services for five years. I was surrounded by technology. I worked with cutting-edge systems every day. I thought I was excellent at tech.
I didn’t even own a smartphone.
They were expensive. They felt unnecessary. And honestly, I wasn’t interested.
Then it was 2014.
I was downsized.
Suddenly I was in my 30s, competing against 22-year-old college graduates who seemed to speak a completely different language. They knew apps. Platforms. Mobile ecosystems. Cloud tools. Social everything.
I realized something uncomfortable:
Technology hadn’t stood still just because I had.
In five short years, the world shifted. Not dramatically. Not loudly. Just steadily. And I had let it pass me by.
I had three choices:
Change careers
Go back to school
Or figure it out fast
By sheer luck, I landed a seasonal position at Best Buy during Christmas.
That changed everything.
Best Buy invests heavily in training. About 25% of your working hours are dedicated to learning. Not just memorizing features — understanding systems. Understanding how devices talk to each other. Understanding the ecosystem.
I realized something important:
The people who seem “naturally good” at tech aren’t smarter.
They were exposed earlier.
They were trained differently.
They learned the patterns.
Over the next decade, I worked in customer-facing mobile technology for companies like Samsung and Verizon. I paid attention. Not just to the devices — but to people.
I noticed something over and over again:
What feels intuitive to someone who understands the ecosystem does not feel intuitive to everyone.
And that’s not a flaw.
It’s a missing instruction manual.
Because I learned tech later — after it had already gotten ahead of me — I remember what it feels like to be behind.
I remember the moment of realizing:
“I should probably know this by now.”
That feeling is what SilverTech exists to eliminate.
You don’t age out of learning technology.
You age out of being willing to feel embarrassed.
There’s a difference.
The truth is, learning tech isn’t about memorizing every update or mastering every feature. It’s about understanding how to reason with it.
I don’t teach the book.
I teach you how to read.
Once you understand the patterns — how systems connect, how settings work, how information moves — the intimidation fades. It becomes familiar. And once something becomes familiar, it stops feeling threatening.
I became confident in tech at 35.
Not 15.
Not 22.
Thirty-five.
If you’ve ever felt like the world sped up without you, I promise you this:
It didn’t.
You just never got the training.
And that can change.
If this resonates with you, tell me:
When was the moment you first felt “behind” with technology?
No shame here. That’s why we’re building this space.
