Battling the "Greener Pastures" Syndrome with My iPad

I love my iPad...but it's beginning to run with the efficiency of dial-up Internet. Those recent upgrades? They don’t fit. What I have now is a first generation iPad living in an iOS7 world — a Manhattan wannabe residing a train ride away.

But I still love it. I can check my email. I can play Words With Friends, SongPop, and Puzzlejuice. I can get on Facebook and Twitter.

For now. Some of my apps will no longer run. They’ve moved on to greener, more technologically adept pastures that my iPad will no longer support. My poor iPad is left standing on the wrong side of the picket fence, wondering how soon my other apps will abandon it for the luxurious meadows on the other side.

Some of my apps have one foot on each side of the fence. They start up — slowly — and run for a bit before inexplicably disappearing and leaving me staring at my home screen.

Sometimes a restart works, and then I can listen to music and watch shows and read ebooks and digital magazines and maybe even re-open those traitorous apps, optimistic that they won’t quit in the middle of a game or a posting.

I have no intention of replacing my iPad — at least not any time soon. Sure, I’ve looked. It’s hard not to. The new generation of iPads is sleek and slim, lightweight, and even more portable than before. And despite its more delicate appearance, the new tablet supports the apps that my first generation iPad cannot.

But like a favorite car that has grown less glamorous, my iPad is still serviceable. And, since it was my re-introduction to the world of Apple gadgets (a decade-and-a-half after I’d abandoned my first Mac for the a more financially accessible PC), I have a plethora of other machines to bridge the gap. After the iPad came an iPod, an iPhone, and a MacBook. Each has its own distinct functions in my world, and though none can replace my iPad, each does its part to support my aging tablet in its/my hour of need.

So I will keep my first generation iPod in my stable of devices, enjoying the perks it provides instead of focusing on what it can no longer do. I will play my games and check my emails and enjoy the screen that’s big enough to suit middle-aged eyes at the end of a long, visually overwhelming day because at barely three years old, it’s too young to be put out to pasture.

No matter how green the grass is on the other side.

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