My grandparents are still refusing to learn any new electronic equipment. An electric water heater is as far as they have gotten.
What pulled my mom in was digital cameras. She just loves pictures and once she figured out that she can have a small camera that allows here to see the pictures she takes instantly, there was no stopping her. I soon had to explain to her all about photo organizing software and how she could share her picture with her friends over the internet.
For my dad it was the Russian version of MySpace. My dad didn’t even know how to close a browser window when he started. He is just so naturally hyper social that when he understood what a social networking site could do, there was no stopping him. I had to teach him out to use the computer from scratch because he had to know who looked at his web page and respond to them. He has like a thousand friends now. Located just about everyone he knew in Russia. Figured out how to use Skype and talks with friends who live all around the world.
It’s always exciting to see someone so good at something without using the latest technology and then see what they become when they figure out they can enhance their abilities.
My grandmother said it was constantly seeing the “see X web page for more details.” She didn’t have an Internet connection and couldn’t see what was going on.
Personally, I think it probably had more due to her increased lack of mobility. She hasn’t been able to take the trips to see relatives that she was before and she realized the Internet was a way she could still stay in touch with friends and relatives without leaving the house. My grandfather tried years ago and gave it up quickly so I wasn’t expecting much, but she’s really taken to it pretty well.
Though trying to explain YouTube to her last night was a catastrophic failure. “CYBER, WHAT’S THAT BIG BOOBED CHICK DOING THERE?!?!” “No, gramma, just forget it, just watch the video on your screen.” “But this chick is here with her boobs almost hanging out, we shouldn’t be looking at that kind of stuff!” :smack:
I gave Mom and Dad an old computer years ago, even though the said they didn’t want it and would probably not use it. They were hooked almost instantly. Dad first, then he pulled in Mom.
There were some things I couldn’t get across to him, though. Like the fact that MS Word kerns automatically, so you don’t need to type two spaces after a period. Or the part where you don’t need to hit “enter” at the end of every line.
Guess who got to clean up his manuscript before he sent it off?
My mother was slowly drawn to the computer in dribs and drabs. She found a couple of video games that she could play, and got hooked in. Then she discovered a desktop publishing program of mine, and started making birthday cards with it. She’s now using it for writing regular newsletters for a club she’s a member of.
For many years I was the Executive Director of an outfit, but couldn’t type. Then in 1985 we went automated. (IBM System-36) I saw very quickly that if I was going to maintain knowledge and control of the business, I was going to have to be able to operate a computer.
Dylan wrote:
“You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changing.”
I changed.
My mother had no interest in the internet until she learned that she could download songs for $.99 each. She was sick of paying $16+ for a CD when all she wanted was one song.
My mother wasn’t interested in the internet until she had a stroke. One of the things she’d lost from the stroke was the ability to read, to identify colors, to count, all of that. As she was recovering, I sat with her and pulled up ebay. As a result a large part of her therapy was typing things like “moser goblet” into ebay and bidding on the results. It was expensive, but it really did help her cognitive skills.
With my dad it was volunteering to be the secretary for his navy ship reunion. (Which really means that my mom and I got the job, and I wasn’t even alive for the Korean War.) He wanted a website, so I had to explain to him why all the navy ship websites with flags and MIDI are bad.
At the turn of the century my 76 year old mother got a webTV setup that allowed her to surf the net and exchange email on her TV. So I would say technology is adapted if there is a cost/benefit to it. She would not have had any need for an ipod or digital camera or anything high tech. The only item that she would have benefited from was a cell phone.
Online shopping sucked my mother into the internet. Thanks to ebay, she now has approximately 1000 pieces of her china that she never uses and that I will have to dispose of one day.
My in-laws still don’t own a computer. I’d like to get them one, but my husband is terrified of the amount of tech support we’d have to do. I don’t think either of them has ever even touched a computer mouse before. As it is, they simply call us up occasionally to “look something up on the computer” for them.
Basically, every summer, they get in their RV and go. A lot of parks offer free hook-up and a part time job in the park. So, you get to stay for free, make a little money, and explore part of the country.
I told my dad he needed to keep a diary of his adventures and e-mail them to friends and family. Soon, he got a laptop, figured out how to turn it on, and he was off to the races. You should have seen it when he figured out how to attach pictures…I have a lovely photo of a rose when they were in Mississippi. Or Alabama. Or Arkansas. I don’t know…they’re working in West Yellowstone this year, took a month to get out there, and just meandered along the way.
I don’t envy the gas costs, but I love reading my dad’s diaries as he travels. I print them out and keep them in a notebook, one for each year.
ivylass that is so cool! I just know that’d be some great reading.
My mother likes to learn new stuff. For ten years she took care of dad (sis and I did help) who had Alzheimer’s. When he died, she started going to the local senior center three times a week. They were offering courses in computers and the internet which piqued her interest. The next thing I knew, she bought a computer. Her big interests are in keeping up with all of us via email, booking cruises (she leaves on her third cruise tomorrow, go mom!), and recipes. Heh… she even learned to send Snopes links to a cousin (her nephew) who sends out every bit of glurge and urban legend he gets. The coolest of that… he’s pretty muched stopped sending all that stuff to her like he’s pretty much stopped sending it to me. HEE! My mom is fighting ignorance!
ETA: For me, like John Carter of Mars said, it was a realization that I needed to learn new technology to keep up with stuff. Some of it I still don’t get like text messaging (hate it!) but ya gotta keep up.
For my dad (the Techno-Peasant whom I’ve cited in various threads for his difficulties in dealing with the computer, and my fruitless attempts to help him, as Son of Techno-Peasant), the two things were checking his stocks on-line (I don’t know how many different stock analysis tools he’s bookmarked - I can’t keep them all straight), and also being able to practise his choral singing. Apparently there’s a site that has most of the major choral pieces available, and you can highlight the particular melody or harmony line you’re practising. He says that he uses the computer to practise his singing more than he uses his piano.
On the other hand, he still somehow makes all his icons disappear from time-to-time, or tries to print an entire manual, or loses his password, and then calls me, plaintively. And then I post yet another “techno-peasant” thread, asking for help.
Well, the early ones included his distance traveled and his mileage (the RV gets 8 miles to the gallon, it’s a "diesel pusher) but once he got going he talked about the food, the characters they met, the sights they’ve seen. They’ve spent the summer in Alaska, but their favorite is the West. They love Route 66, the Badlands, the miles and miles of nothing but a road and the horizon.
My dad is over 70. I’m just glad he’s healthy enough to do this. They’re working in a clothing store this summer…one year he didn’t even come home for Christmas. Instead, he worked at a Hickory Farms kiosk in a Las Vegas mall. How cool is that?
Because I live overseas, and I’m my Grandaddy’s only grandchild. He sends e-mail. I read the ones with no subject, because those are the ones he’s typed an actual message into. Given that he’s very proud he took typing in high school (in…er…1940 or so and didn’t type a lick from then till now) I can sometimes read those if I try to “speak Grandaddy”. (Try to hear him actually saying the words cause he types just whatever is going on in his head at the time).
And he forwards things. Everything he gets sent. I stopped Snopesing them, it upsets him.
For all that sounds like complaining, it’s actually really nice. I can e-mail him if I’m not able to make my once a week phone call on time (rarely, but it happens). I can send him pictures, or just send him an “I love you, you irritating old man” e-mail in the middle of the week. (We have that sort of relationship, he generally responds with something along the lines of “You ain’t got so big I can’t beat your ass.” It’s love as we know it, he’s never hit me in his life. )
I just wish he’d stop forwarding me every glurgy, Jesus filled, urban legend he gets his hands on.
Oh, and he plays Scrabble and Monopoly and has a slot machine game. He loves those.
It keeps him in touch with all of us and he can direct the family gossip as he sees fit, which makes him happy, and he can occasionally stir up shit in the family and watch the drama unfold, which makes all that side of the family happy - tempests in teapots are Southern entertainment.
But mostly, it makes him happy, which is good, cause I love my Grandaddy the most, and I’ve been telling him that since I could talk.
I’m an oldtimer and I’m a technogeek. I first got into computers when one of my students had an old “Trash 80”, and I fooled around with it over the summer. Then a year or two later, my two sons were doing and talking about computers, and they sounded fascinating. Back then, there were a few games and BBSs. I was the first teacher in our school to use computers in the classroom; my students taught me PowerPoint. In fact much of my initial use of the internet was doing research was in connection with teaching.
Got my first digital camera about 1 year after they came out, and never used my film camera after that day, so I guess my interest in photography started me with the digital camera.
GPS is fascinating in itself, and I liked using it while hiking. It is also useful for locating particular plants that I keep an eye on from year to year. I also do geocaching. I’m on my third generation of GPS units.
So I expect that it was really my nature and natural curiosity that got me started, plus the utility of technology that sustained me.
My mum still won’t really use a computer. She will have a Skype conversation as long as someone sets it up for her. Even though she’s a trained touch-typist she can’t adapt to the word processor concept. If you set up an e-mail message she will type the text in, but won’t use the delete or arrow keys. The mouse might as well be the living variety as far as she is concerned.
She has, however, learned to send text messages on her mobile, which is something I’ve only just started to get the hang of.
