Some of us are more tech savvy than other, but all of us get that occasional call from a parent who has been foiled by the evils of modern technology. I just received one from my mom.
Phone rings, I answer.
Me: Hello Mom.
Mom: How did you know it was me?
Me: Caller ID Mom.
Mom: Ok, how do I work the DVD thinggie again?
Me: Hit the source button and go down to input #3.
Mom: That’s stupid. I don’t like it.
Me: I know Mom, bye.
Mom: Bye.
Dad: Here, I put a TV show about the history of science fiction on this DVD for you. It was a great show.
Me: Thanks! I missed the first episode of the series, this is great!
Dad, next day: Hey, that DVD I made for you? Throw it away. I didn’t finalize it.
Me: sigh
Back in the early 90’s we got my parents a VCR that they could program from the tv screen. (They were rare at the time!) We used to put a post it note over the time display to indicate that something was programmed to record so no one would mess it up. There was a post-it over the time display for at least a month. One day I lifted it to find out wtf was going on with it. The time display was doing the flashing 12:00. I asked my mom what was going on. She tells me, we lost power & I couldn’t remember how to reset it, I didn’t want you to know.
sigh
Asked my great aunt, and she said
evil technology… well I’d say the atom bomb.
Less then 5 yrs ago:
Me:“Why are you doing it like that, just put the windows side by side.”
Dad:“How?”
Me:“What do you mean how? You change the size of the window by clicking on the corner and dragging it. LET ME SHOW YOU!” :mad:
Then I went on one of my legendary rants about how ridiculous it is for someone to have owned a computer for a decade and not know this.
A few weeks ago:
Me:“Why are you squinting at the screen?”
Dad:“The text is too small on this website.”
Me:“You can just hold the Control button down and scroll in to make it bigger.” :rolleyes:
My dad met me at the garage this morning to take me home after I dropped off my car.
Dad: Can I use your phone to call mom, I forgot mine.
Me: Sure dad. hands him my iPhone
Dad: How do you turn it on?
Me: Hit the button on the front
Dad: Where the hell are the buttons?
Me: There are no buttons, it’s touch screen.
Dad: Who the hell makes a phone without buttons. Bad enough it doesn’t have a cord.
Me: sigh
That is priceless.
I was helping my mom with her 286 over the phone a couple decades ago. Somehow some cords had gotten unplugged, so I walked her through the process of reconnecting it. Everything was going fine until she plugged the mouse into the PS/2 Keyboard port (same plug for both) and the keyboard into the mouse port.
She sat down, then grabbed ahold of the mouse. Touching it immediately filled the keyboard buffer and causing the PC Speaker to beep frantically each time it was moved at all.
“THE MOUSE IS SCREAMING! THE MOUSE IS SCREAMING!” she shouted into the phone in a panic.
I am loving this thread.
my mom wrote her dissertation on technology in elementary education, so I have nothing to contribute
Heh. My dad is stubbornly resistant to stereotypes as well.
Jeebus. I guess so am I at this point.
Back in the day of 486 when you had to press F8 to configure the memory if you wanted certain games to run, my mum would tell me off for doing that because she thought that I would break the computer. yeah right, do you even know what I’m doing sigh
My dad is the same, he would do his “There’s too much stuff on the computer” and just randomly start deleting things and then wonder why the computer won’t load because he’s deleted some important file sigh.
I’m so glad I don’t work tech support.
Although I do have to say I’m getting a little like that - esp with phones, I don’t usually know the differences between the models (I mean I do know, i just can’t be arsed to go into the Nth degree), I just want my phone to call and text. Most of the time it’s laziness rather than tech outfoxing me.
Well I guess we’ll have to broaden the parameters and include all family, not just parents.
Unfortunately I’m the one person in the family who knows about them there computery things. Though I do have a good stock of favours that I can call in so I guess it’s not all bad.
I’d thot I’d already posted a story in this thread, but maybe I was thinking of twitter.
Anyway…my dad’s had a computer for many years but he does only very limited things with it---- email, web (kinda), banking and word processing.
So last fall his desktop died, and he got his first laptop.
Of course, he called me to come and help set it up for him.
I was happy to help of course. In fact he left the laptop sitting in the box unopened for a week and half until I could get over there to help him.
Can you imagine getting a new computer and not even opening it for more than a week? Anyway…I dunno, he was afraid he’d break it or screw up or whatever.
So, I go over there and get him up and running.
And I so, here’s the the next thing that happened:
Me: “Ooo. Ooo. This is great you have laptop now. You know its got embedded Wifi capability —as most do these days. How about we you a wireless router for only about $40, then you can use your laptop anywhere in the house?”
Dad: “Eh, nah. I’m good. I’m not gonna move it anywhere”.
Me: “(sigh). Okay.”
So then xmas is rolling toward us and I say to my wife. “Oh, this is great. I can get my dad a nice laptop case for Christmas.”
She says “Umm…You sure? Do you think he’s gonna take it anywhere?”
I think “Hmmm…” So I query my Dad. “So Dad. Great that you have a laptop.
You can take it with you when you go away for weekends and on vacations. Also, you can use the Wifi when your in public places. Lots of Wifi everywhere now Dad.”
Dad. “Meh. Eh. Nah. I’m not gonna bring it anywhere.”
So, I don’t get him a laptop case–but instead get him a bunch of stuff to care for it — canned air to blow dust out, back-up drive, screen wipes.
Oh well. 
At least he’s better than my mom. My mom has not ever even touched a computer ever.
I purchased a wifi router for my parent’s house last year. So far the only ones that have used it are myself, my kids, and my brother in law.
Two years ago my brother in law did the same for our family lake home. It’s amazing, my parents litterally have the best DSL and Cable connections,but they only connect with a 6 and 8 year old desktop with large SVGA monitors in each place.
sigh
~Shooter Out
My mother has an iPod mini (you know, the model from three years ago) that’s still brand new in the case. My father tried to ‘help’ her rip a CD to her computer using iTunes. It didn’t work immediately, so he went around deleting files. I don’t follow the logic there, but somehow it made sense to him. To this day, her CD tray will no longer open. The iPod mini is still in its case.
My favorite, though, is the story of the haaauuuunted moooouuuuuuuseeee.
On day my mother calls me with a sound of concern in her voice. She says, “Son, I think my mouse is haunted, but I can’t get your father to believe me because it likes him.”
“Okay, mom. What’s happening?” I ask.
“Well when I’m using the mouse, it’s fine. But whenever I stop using it to type or to read something, it’ll start moving on its own. Sometimes it will even click on folders and open them,” she describes to me.
At this point, I’m a little concerned. I set up my parents’ wifi and made sure it was secure. If they’ve gotten a trojen and somebody remote controlling it, then that’s bad news. Though, just opening folders seems a little mundane.
My mother continues, “but then it will go to close the folder, but it’ll miss. Like it doesn’t know where the x-box is. The worst part, though, is that when I yell downstairs to your father to come up here, it completely stops. It never, even does it when he’s next to me.”
“… Hey mom, did you and dad maybe buy wireless mice while I was gone?”
“Yeah, we got some from the corner store that were on sale.”
“Get a new mouse, mom. Your old one is haunted.”
I love it when it’s more a matter of trying to decipher what the problem actually is. “Hounted Mouse” was one of my faves, until I saw this:
I explained to my parents about e-filing their taxes. They seemed excited about this and were eager to try. The other day they filled out all their taxes form and brought them to me and my mom says “Ok, how do we fax these on-the-line?”
ohh unholy crom, where to start…
I showed my mum how to use email about a decade ago on a rather clapped out 486 as her sister lived in Florida and it was costing her a fortune in phone calls to ring her.
Several classics come to mind , on one ocassion I’m sitting in a pub in Ballsbridge, on the east side of dublin, about a 40 minute/25$ taxi ride from my mum’s house on my third or fourth pint of the black stuff. Cellphone rings
Mum:Alan… Help!!!
ME: what is it mum?
Mum: The internet has frozen and I don’t know what to do
ME:…
Me: I’m in a pub in Ballsbridge mum, what exactly do you want me to do from here…
more recently my older brother registered her on facebook, of course does she ring him when it goes wrong, heavens no…
Tehre are more tales (sooo many more) but I’ll save em for the meet up).
Phaze
on the “mm dinner is ready, STOP! it’s nomming time” ID
I have something to contribute to.
Last summer I bought my mother a new laptop, keep in mind I’m not that good with CPU (see quote below). She was quite impress that for 500$ she has something that goes on the Internet and run office with less than a minute of waiting time between changing program.
She comes to my house in November and see all my CPU with no wire to the modem. I explain the wireless router and tralalilala.
We bought her a wireless router for Christmas. Before we go home she ask us to install it.
-No problem mom. Where is your modem.
-Just follow the cable Dom
-Mom, Why is it written WIRELESS on your modem
-I don’t know, I rent it from the service cie. What does Wireless mean?
Ok my mother does not speak English but she is not THAT bad at reading it!
This is the story of how I regifted the router to my brother in law.
Looks like I’m kinda old now.
I just learned something there. Thanks Daisuke.