My mother created and mantains a crime website and a forum that goes along with it.
I have never had to answer any computer related questions. She learned everything she knows by reading how to do it on the internet.
The only bad thing is that she is so busy with her online connections she rarely answers email. I have to gasp pick up the phone and call her.
Mom, now 78, was online for several years before the Alzheimer’s got too bad. She enjoyed playing cards online and getting email including pictures of her grandchildren. Dad died over ten years ago; he never got on the internet. I think he would have enjoyed it and I have no doubt he could have dealt with it. One thing that’s a little funny in this thread is that some of us posting about our parents are the same age as the parents of other posters.
Until recently, I would have called them clueless, to the point that they didn’t really understand what I did for a living (I manage a website for a small gov’t agency). Then, last year, they bought their own laptop.
Since then, they’ve improved. Dad (age 72) still seems lost in old-fashioned sci-fi-type computer terminology; for example, he doesn’t understand that computer memory isn’t the same as saved files (like documents and photos), which he refers to as “memory banks” and makes me think of Robbie the Robot. Mom (age 66) can send email, and has made travel reservations online without my assistance; she can also do Google searches. When they were visiting me a few weeks ago without their own laptop, she used my computer here at home, didn’t mess anything up, and only needed to call me at work for help when she wanted to print something out–but my printer is a rather touchy and tricky creature even for the experienced user.
My mom taught me how to build PCs. Then she got mad at me when I borrowed parts of her computer to use in mine. These days she’s a help desk manager at a university.
My dad started out knowing very little about computers, but I taught him a lot so as not to field constant tech support calls, or drive 2 hours to fix something. He caught on quick, and now only needs help with really screwy stuff. He used to install phone systems, so had experience with technical stuff (although of a somewhat different kind).
My Mum is pretty good with computers and the internet these days. She likes to use a desktop publishing program to make newsletters for her Club.
Unfortunately, she’s started to email out stupid jokes she gets sent, that are all at least 15 years old in internet terms, and have all these dumb animated gifs all through them.
She just turned 65 a couple of weeks ago.
I’m stealing this story from a friend, who was with me in an opera called ‘The Golden Ass’, based on Apuleius, produced by the Canadian Opera Company in 1999. Her parents had just got a computer and had just got set up with an ISP, so their first surf was to go to Yahoo! and look for 'Golden Ass COC ’ - the hits they got were indescribable. They’re a little more savvy now, but what an introduction to the web…
My mom (50) is pretty good on the internet. Up until recently she played Ultima Online daily with a group of friends. Recently she decided to start selling some of her crafts stuff on Ebay. Every time I talk to her now, she wants to tell me (in great detail) about her latest auctions. I have to stop her or she will go on FOREVER!
Dad (also 50) is much more uhm, interesting. He had dial up internet a while back and mainly used it for checking out porn. He also clicked every pop up ad and signed up for every mailing list he could find. I think the correct terminology for what he did to his computer is “completely hosed”. I managed to bring it back from the dead twice before he decided that it was all just too much trouble.
My dad (67) is probably more Internet-savvy than I am. He’s a career librarian, now retired, and was a pioneer of sorts in computerizing library catalogs. He loves reference librarianing above all else and took to web resources like a natural. He’s great with “deep internet” stuff. However, he still types using the hunt-and-peck method, with two fingers.
Mom (65) finished her dissertation in 1977, and all during my childhood we used punchcards recycled from her research as note paper. I think they finally ran out in the mid-90s or so. She doesn’t use the Internet much, I think mostly because she has other things to do, but she can do it.
So do I. It has served me well.
Dad? Is that you?
When my mom discovered the Reply button, we got every bit of spam, glurge, and outright crapola that turned up in her Inbox. I gave it quite a bit of time for her to settle down, and then started using Reply to All to direct her to Snopes for debunking most of the BS. Now she only sends things that are actually interesting/funny/relevant.
My mother-in-law was looking up something on the internet at work and got one of those pop-up ads that says “A virus has been detected on your computer”’ that looks like a Windows pop-up box. She was smart enough to realize that she didn’t want to click “OK,” but not smart enough to realize that “Cancel” is just as bad.
Next thing you know, 800 pop-ups of HORSE PORN are inundating her computer, and she has to call in the tech guys. I die laughing every time I think of my mother-in-law trying to close out all these horse porn popups.
Both of my parents were familiar with computers through the early 1990s. After that point, my dad stopped having as much regular access to computers via work, so he’s not as good with using the internet and doing searches as my mom is. My mom continues to work with a computer every day, and she reads news online, looks at photos, and does a little blog searching as well on her favorite hobby research topics. If my father had continued to have access to computers and had been introduced to the internet via work and at home, he’d be at least as good at dealing with computers as my mother is, but with the added bonus of knowing the mechanics of putting together and upgrading computers. My father is 64 and my mother is 63.
I realize this is not a common thing to have parents who are that comfortable with computer use, especially if it stems from working for large computer technology related companies for decades.
My mom (60) isn’t bad, she’s just not all that good. At least I’ve gotten her into Snopes (although she keeps referring to it as “Snoops”, which makes me feel stabby for some reason), so she’s cut out the forwarding of crap (mostly.)
The one weird thing she keeps doing, and I have no idea how, is accessing my husband’s OLD Amazon wishlist. She enters his name correctly and all, but four times over three years now, she’s bought him something that was taken off his wishlist at least three months prior to her purchase. It’s bizarre and unduplicatable by any other person.
My dad is almost 60, and he’s the one who taught me to use a computer. We were on the internet around 1990 or so, using our computer to remotely access his computer at work. He knows more about computers and the internet than I do, and I’m reasonably good with the things.
My mother can do whatever she needs to do online without any trouble, but is extraordinarily suspicious of any online commerce.
My grandfather on my mom’s side worked for IBM for years, so he’s fairly comfortable doing basic internet things.
On the other hand, I’ve received emails from my grandmother where she corrects an earlier statement because that’s not what she meant to type. I think she’s learned about the backspace key since then, though.
Strangely enough, Google in 2008 is right on the money compared to Yahoo! in 1999. Better results ordering? more sensitive filtering? It couldn’t be less pr0n online.
My mother doesn’t even like typewriters, let alone computers. 'Nuff said.
My dad is just fine - he does business online, uses email responsibly, has ads on online dating sites (even though he just bought a house with his girlfriend), etc.
My in-laws have a wireless router at their house, two laptops, and two desktops. My MIL knows more about photoshop than I do. They’re fine.
(Oh yeah - my parents are divorced.)
My dad used to think it was voodoo designed to destroy civilization as we know it. He has since softened his stance when he found out what a great reference tool it is.
He’s almost 79.
He couldn’t operate a computer to save his life, but he’ll call me to look up stuff.
Mom does OK for a women close to 70. She buys stuff online and emails OK. I don’t think she does much research, but she doesn’t need to.
My parents are both in their late sixties.
Dad was using the Internet before I was, and prodded me to buy my first computer when I was about thirty. And get on the Internet. I originally signed up for the five-hours-a-month plan, believe it or not. However, I created a blog for him that he never finds the time to post on. And he doesn’t return my emails very promptly.
Mom, now, won’t use the Internet at all, as she thinks that if she does, ninjas will rappel into her house in the dead of night and steal her identity and infect her with a computer virus. I can’t even get her to get a Yahoo or Hotmail email account under a fake name and check it at the public library. On the bright side, she will call me up and ask me to do research for her on the Internet. I guess she figures it’s my own problem is the ninjas come after me.