Why use technology when you can do it yourself?  Why use an app for sticky notes when you can just use real sticky notes and plaster them all over your laptop?  Why use Siri to set your alarm for you at night when you can just reach over and do it yourself?  Because using Siri is fun.  

Seriously, all you have to do is say “Hey Siri” and she can do all kinds of things, like set your alarm, multiply numbers you don’t want to have to think about, find a place on the map or answer some arbitrary question you’re just wondering about.  She can call people by just saying things like “call Doug Bush, mobile” and boom, she does it, or even texting.  Except if you forget to actually say the name of the punctuation, it comes out sounding more robotic than she does.

What I especially love is to tell Siri to remind me of things.  “Hey Siri – remind me at 3:15 that I have a zoom meeting at 3:30”.  That kind of thing has saved my life many times.  Or “hey Siri – remind me to do High Notes on Sunday”.  I bet some of you NMEA members thought I just remembered these things.

You can even ask Siri about Siri.  Like, “hey Siri, do you have a boyfriend?” to which she answers, “I’ve been told my artificial intelligence standards are too high”, or hey Siri, what’s your favorite song with her answer being “I always enjoy more cowbell”.  Not exactly what I asked for, but humorous.

Siri will let me know if she has to think about it, ask me if I need more options or if this was what I was looking for.  It’s like having a Rosie the maid on the Jetsons, only she lives in a phone.  And doesn’t clean my house.  And doesn’t cry robot tears.  You have to be my age to get these references, I know.

There is one problem, however.  For some people it might be because of their accent or because they don’t enunciate clearly.  This is usually not a problem for me, so when I ask Siri to remind me of something, aside from a little misinterpretation, she’s usually spot on.  However, today I asked her to remind me to do something at 9:00 a.m.  I remember asking her because it was something important and I didn’t want to forget.  And this is what the reminder was – To put face mask on the Internet.  What the heck does that even mean?  I can’t remember what it was I asked Siri to remember, because I trusted her to understand me, remind me on time (which she did) and then I would do what I’m supposed to be reminded of.  No such luck.  Twelve hours later and I still have no idea what it was I was supposed to remember.  Apparently, it wasn’t as important as I thought it was, or I didn’t do something that was very important and something bad will happen soon.  I just don’t know which it is.  

It would be much more helpful when I say things like this that don’t make sense for her to say something like, “what was that?” or “what exactly are you trying to say here?” but no.  Like a good assistant, she takes whatever I say verbatim and I just have to try to figure out what I meant.  I’m sorry, I just don’t function that well at 7:00 a.m.  I’m not a morning person and it’s hard to remember things – that’s why I have Siri.