the last time i wen to visit my parents i had to write down very detailed step by step instructions for my dad on how to attach a file to an email....hahahaha.

12/19/2007 7:26:59 PM

Quote :

"Her: I saw something at the store about an Xbox 3 Me: That doesn't exist Her: Yeah it does, I saw it Me: There is a Wii, a PS3, and an Xbox 360. No Xbox 3. Her: Well what about a Gamestation? I thought I saw that? Me: That doesn't exist either. You are thinking about either the Gamecube or Playstation. Her: Well what about the Halogen series? Me: ??? Her: Halogen. It had something to do with Xbox. Me: I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Halogens are elements on the periodic table next to the Noble Gases. Her: There was a Xbox pack about halogens. It was green and had a robot on the front. Me: Halo? Her: I guess."

All this exchange really does is make you come off like a jerk.

"I saw something about an Xbox 3"

You should know full well what she is talking about at that point. No need to put up a front and pretend you don't know what she is saying.

Quote :

"I heard of a study that said people who were born before WWII generally have a much easier time grasping technology than the Baby Boomer generation that came after them."

I don't know about that. I've got some born before WWII grandparents that call me up every time their universal remote loses its programming, even though they watch me reprogram it with the manual every time. Ie. I don't have the answer, the manual does, they are just too intimidated to even attempt to follow the instructions. Same thing with blinking VCR clocks. I think they finally put a piece of electric tape over it.

I was going to give them one of my old computers once and then realized I didn't want to be on tech support 24-7.

[Edited on December 19, 2007 at 7:47 PM. Reason : -]

12/19/2007 7:45:43 PM

Oh shit let me clarify. He has like 6-7 computers, of which 4 or 5 are networked. He has a few others he uses rarely but still has running, including the Tandy.

For Christmas I am giving him 3 Dell Dimension 4100s with Windows XP (he has yet to make the jump, for fear some of his DOS programs will not run, mainly Works) and a Dell Dimension 4400S with a gig of RAM in it. That PC is over twice as fast as his next closest one. I'm trying to standardize his machines and force him to change to XP, so that he can do things like Remote Desktop Connection from his shop office outside to his main office computer upstairs, instead of having to walk back and forth and take floppy disks. Dad has bought him a 340 gig external HD, etc. So we are going to force him to grow into the "new" XP OS.

12/19/2007 9:18:35 PM

my parents both have cell phones, but neither answer them. I mad the mistake of sending my dad a text message about six weeks ago. He calls yesterday with the answer to my question.

12/19/2007 10:24:39 PM

I have two sets of grandparents. Both still married, both sets born in the 1930's.

Dads set: does everything, DVD players, HD tv's, multiple computers, networked, has monitors all over the house connected to things so he can watch wherever he is.....

Mom's Set: Doesnt' have DVD player, still has shaggy carpet in the basement, won't use voicemail becuase it's not the real person, you never know if they got what you said or not... Also, they finally got cell phones (after some bad experiences, the children (my mom and her syblings) bought a cell plan for them.... The batteries are now dead and they can't figure out how to call someone. (when they dial the numbers, it doesn't connect)........

12/20/2007 2:03:46 AM

A few years ago, it srsly took me like 3 weeks to get my mom to understand the concept of "right-clicking" in order to copy/paste.

Me (on the phone): OK, now just right-click on what you highlighted.
Mom: I clicked and my rectangle went away.
Me: No, you left clicked. You have to use the button on the right of the mouse.
Mom: Ok, I did that... but it doesn't say copy.
Me: Did you highlight again?
Mom: Ohhhh... got it.
Me: Alright, now right click.
Mom: Click, right?
Me: Right click.
Mom: It went away again. You said to click.
Me: No. I meant to click the button... not like "correct, now click"
Mom: This is confusing.

12/20/2007 2:41:28 AM

90% of these problems could be solved by buying an imac

12/20/2007 3:20:41 AM

^

12/20/2007 3:26:15 AM

How do you make your Mac go faster?















Drop it from a higher window.

12/20/2007 3:35:24 AM

at least until terminal velocity

12/20/2007 4:03:15 AM

ha... reminds me of my friend's mom... "julie... don't you want the new cd from two pack shaker?"

12/20/2007 7:17:53 AM

My grandparents can still be old fashioned though. They have an ancient fucking plan from Alltel that is on their bag phone in their car. The bitch works fine, if you don't care about portability, a battery, etc. but Feb. 18th, the analog towers are going down.

So for Christmas my dad and aunt are having me buy and setup a cellphone for them. Luckily Verizon (where I work part-time) has a 65+ plan thats like $30/month, and the Coupe, an old folks phone. Big buttons, big screen, In Case of Emergency/911 numbers all over the damn thing, and loud. I bet they will start using it quite a bit more when they finally get used to it.

12/20/2007 7:28:52 AM

Jitterbug!

12/20/2007 7:52:05 AM

this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite threads

12/20/2007 8:44:10 AM

my sister just ought an lg chocolate phone in july, and didnt even know how to answer calls on it for the first few weeks. i had to set up all the other crap on it for her over thanksgiving...

and my mother is absolutely hopeless ... she asked for a dvd player for christmas last year, so all of the kids chipped in for it. she asked me if me or my brother could set it up for her when we are in town for christmas next week.
and since she teaches middle schoolers, she thinks she knows everything about pop culture references and what not. its pretty awful when she starts talking about what some slang term means... and somebody has to correct her... you'd think her puppy just died by how upset she is over junk like that

12/20/2007 8:56:27 AM

12/20/2007 9:13:35 AM

^LOL

12/20/2007 9:18:39 AM

hahhaahah 10/10

12/20/2007 9:38:25 AM

my 75 year old grandma still uses WebTV...

She lives in PA and I see her once every 2 years pretty much. Last time I was visiting this was our conversation in front of my parents and my gf:

*I had just "fixed" her WebTV, which she uses just for email. She had it set to channel 4 instead of channel 3 and could not find it...

Grandma: "Chris, do you ever get any of those... ya know... hardcore porno emails?"
Me (laughing hystericallywith everyone): "Every now and then, sure."
Grandma: "They trick you into opening them and then when you look all you see is porno"
Me (tears in eyes): "They are tricky like that"
Grandma: "I think it is because my email is "hiplucy" they must think I am hip and like porno"


We still laugh at this on a regular basis... never heard her talk about anything but crazy cousins and polka until then. Completely caught everyone off guard.

12/20/2007 10:16:51 AM

Yeah, my mom is a smart woman. But she just doesn't want to "do" anything electronic. I had to write down all the steps for her to use gtalk, and everytime she starts the conversation with, "Is this thing on?"

12/20/2007 10:17:53 AM

my topics, add to

12/20/2007 10:19:22 AM

My parents have standard cable, standard home phone, and dial up internet. We've never had any caller ID or shit like that on our land line. My mom is okay at a computer, but my dad thinks e-mail is silly and has no need for it. I still get phone calls asking what channel to turn the tv to when they are watching a DVD.....

12/20/2007 12:18:40 PM

Officer Hopkins: Well, we better divide.
Officer Smith: That's SPLIT!

12/20/2007 12:28:40 PM

Its not parents, but I had a lady in my company who asked me one day if I knew a better way to organize all her different files in her My Documents folder. When I asked her, "why not just make new folders and organize them that way", I got the deer-in-the-headlights look.


Seriously. Her whole world became one boundless opprotunity when I showed her the joys of the right click.

12/20/2007 12:33:07 PM

my dad thinks I'm more in touch with technology than him
and in some ways this is true

but he did call me via skype to ask what I'd heard about specific models of various cellular phones

12/20/2007 1:02:41 PM

So do these older people have some serious deficiency when it comes to all things technical, or are they just lazy. I think it's the latter. Why bother with something if you can just get your kid/grandkid to do it for you?

In the case of a blinking VCR clock - I would have to do the exact same thing that they would have to do. Either pick up the manual and follow instructions or just push buttons until you figure it out. It's no different for them. I really don't know why they feel like they can't go through that process. Maybe it's intimidating for them?

12/20/2007 1:07:37 PM

i think it's mostly the fear of "OMFG if i touch it i will break it beyond all repair"

12/21/2007 12:27:58 AM