An open letter to the technologically dependant
January 31st, 2008Older generation, I have a bone to pick with you.
Look, I understand you didn’t grow up with “The Internet”. Or computers. Maybe they make you a little nervous. Maybe they make you feel completely stupid, because your five year old grandson can use your computer ten times better than you can. That’s okay. I too remember the day my second grade teacher announced that our next assignment was to research something on the internet - it was terrifying, believe me, I know.
But let me explain something to you. You see, the world is changing. The internet is a great place, really… You can shop online, talk to people all over the world, learn about anything (and everything)… and oh my god, you can even do all your banking in your UNDERWEAR. Preposterous, you say? I know.
I understand that the older you get, the harder it (typically) becomes for you to change—and that’s okay. If you don’t want to use computers, don’t. If you still want to send all written communication via fax (what’s that?) or mail, that’s fine. If you still want to do your payroll by hand, that’s dandy. If you still want to run down to the bank before 3pm to pay your bills, more power to you.
However.
If you find yourself desiring to do dirty little 21st century things like sending emails, shopping online, reading weblogs and the likes, don’t rely on “the younger generation” to do everything for you.
We are not your tech slaves. (Geeks are people too!) We don’t mind helping you learn how to use a mouse or find the “e” symbol that opens up the internet, but you cannot forever rely on us to do every single thing for you.
Just because we actually know how to use a computer doesn’t mean you don’t have to learn. Knowing someone with the ability to type and print doesn’t excuse you from learning how to do the same.
It might come as a surprise, but we weren’t born with these internet-surfing, document-printing, keyboard-typing abilities. We actually hard to learn—and sometimes, it wasn’t easy. I don’t know about anyone else, but I still remember how much I sucked at All the right type. Or how horridly appalling my first website design was. Point in case? We had to work at it. And now, older generation, your time has come: You have to, too.
We won’t always be around forever. Some of your teenagers will actually move out of your house. Some of them will actually have lives, lives that will not always permit them to drop everything to drive to your house and show you what plug goes into which hole in the back of your computer. (For the record though, the keyboard plug might just go into the port (read: hole) with, oh, I don’t know? The port with the picture of the keyboard next to it? Just a thought.)
The time has come, older generation. Your time has come. It no longer matters whether or not you have a “computer genius” son who can do “everything”. The time has come for you to learn how to check your email. By yourself. Without following the step-by-step handwritten directions your son had to write for you and stick by the computer.
Go on. Do it. As the kids would say, I dare you. And when you get so addicted to this new world that your kids have to take your laptop away lest they wake up in the middle of the night to find you reading blogs and watching youtube videos, don’t blame me. Get help.
Do you secretly know my father and decide to write a blog about him? Because even though I moved out over four months ago, he still seems to think I can be there to do something over the internet for him.
I had to teach him how to use the ‘Shift’ key the other day. The ‘Shift’ key!
Every time he calls me with a computer question, I feign ignorance and tell him to Google it. He knows how to Google, which is a start, I guess.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:01 amI totally agree with you. I can’t stand it when people are always calling somebody else in to solve their little tech problems, especially for something like INSTALLING A PRINTER. Can they not learn how to do it themselves so they know next time or at least read the instruction manuel? It’s never* too late to learn how to use a computer. Once or twice is okay but if they keep on doing it then it gets really annoying.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:51 amMy family bought its first computer when I was in 4th grade, and my brother and I mastered the Internet fairly quickly. My dad didn’t. So somehow that meant every time the computer froze up or had an illegal operation or otherwise broke, he would expect us to fix it — even though HE broke it, even though he couldn’t tell us HOW he broke it, and even though I was ten years old and didn’t know how to fix it. Then he’d get mad at us. It was super-frustrating.
On a lighter note, one of my older professors got facebook. She wanted to put a picture on her profile, so she asked me to help her. A couple of days later she asked me if I’d done it yet, but she hadn’t given me her password! lol
January 31st, 2008 at 7:35 amMy dad’s a bit of a tech head, and he helps me with the physical aspects like plugging things in, etc.
My mum is a graphic designer and works primarily on the computer, but she doesn’t really know how to do stuff other than the internet, basic computer stuff and programs like dreamweaver and photoshop. Anything else? I have to show her.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:51 amI’m pretty glad my parents actually learned on their own, even though they do ask the odd question now and then. I find it a bit funny though, whenever my aunt/uncle from Las Vegas calls me and asks me about something. I do use the computer a lot, but I don’t know every single thing on top of my head. That’d be mighty awesome, but really, I don’t. :P
I remember I learned Powerpoint and other stuff like that just be mere experimentation. Maybe they should just really try to set some time (like an hour a day or something) to play with the computer. I find that you actually learn more and better things when you try it by yourself, ahaha.
It really irks me though that my parents refuse to use Google instead of Yahoo. :P
January 31st, 2008 at 12:29 pmNice entry, and I wholeheartedly agree. Not so much the relying one me thing (even though that pisses me off), but they really do have to realise that their time is over. My parents don’t even allow me to use MSN to contact people. I still do all the time, but just them giving the plain “No. You can’t chat online” thing is enough to get me really angry.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:41 pmI’m happy that my parents use the computer just as much as I do, but I do really hate when older people think that we will be there for their every little computer glitch. Once I had an older substitute teacher who wouldn’t stop blabbing about his computer problems, and that of other people his age.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:56 pmOMG AMEN! Its like my grandma who is too impatient to bother learning a computer yet every time I see her she wants me to email her friends. Women her age know how to at least email yet she still insists on her typewriter.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:01 pmMy parents use computers all the time for work now, so they’ve gotten pretty good with them. They had to learn to preform their jobs… They rarely ask for help with something, so I don’t mind. I strongly doubt they will ever become addicted, though :P
January 31st, 2008 at 5:33 pmMy mother is terribly fond of gadgets - She took it upon herself to convert our elderly family members to the ways of the 21st century and the Internet.
Oddly, I’ve witnessed something of the opposite in the older generation. Something needed to be done on the computer- now, I cannot remember what- of one of my way-older teachers. She insisted on doing it herself. She wouldn’t listen/wasn’t getting what I was telling her. We weren’t making any progress. I’m not a patient person - I couldn’t wait on her to figure it out. So when she left the room, I took care of the problem.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:51 pmWell, as Nellie said also, you’re writing about my mother. Problem is she lives in South America and I in Norway. Not really easy explaining things over Skype. She doesn’t even has Skype cause she wouldn’t know how to use it.
Whenever there’s something wrong with the computer (it strangely happens quite often), she’ll associate anything to blame it on to (”the government’s website destroyed my screen resolution”).
I even had to write down steps to download a picture from her email account. It’s hopeless. I hope they one day sit down, take their time and learn. Great post!!!
PS: what happened with your previous design?
Reply: I killed it. :P I got tired of this current one (the pink one), so on a whim I “designed” a simple layout to satisfy the urge for change. However, two days later I couldn’t stand the simple layout and tried to take it back to the drawing board only to discover that as of lately, I epically fail at designing what I really, really want. So until I magically gain the skills and time needed to completely revamp, this one will stay.
BTW - ROFL @ “The government’s website destroyed my screen resolution”… Oh man, parents!
February 1st, 2008 at 1:49 amMy mother is like that. I check her emails, download stuff for her, make spreadsheets for her in Excel… everything related to the computer is always a task to be delegated to Lexie.
Lo and behold, just as I was about to press the “Submit Comment” button, she approaches me, asking me to transfer music to her iPod. Great.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:15 amMy grandparents just bought a laptop! How hilarious is that? lol :) And they’re getting internet at the end of this month, I have taught them how to turn on the computer, turn it off and play solitary, lol :p
February 1st, 2008 at 12:56 pmhonestly i don’t mind. for u have to understand, to be young is not the key. and u soon learn that old is not always bad. there are things i have learned from my grandparents that i can never learn from a movie, google or even facebook. we have knowledge to share but lets not be so quick to say they have nothing to offer.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:26 pm