Parents and evil technology.

GWC Community Off-Topic/Other
#21

My dad couldn’t close Internet Explorer (sigh I know). He kept hitting the X, and nothing happened. Nothing, that is, except for a dialogue box that said there was a problem with the tab, and it was being restarted. (Needless to say, he ignored the obvious explanation to what was happening.) Over and over again, for five minutes, he kept doing the same thing, mysteriously getting the same result. After he finally gave up, I killed the program using the Task Manager. Arguably, even someone moderately tech-savvy might not know to do that, but then he decided to turn off the computer and couldn’t manage it. After ranting at length that SOMEONE had screwed it up — he was the only one to use it since yesterday — I figured out what the problem was:

He’s left-handed. The mouse isn’t.

Le sigh. :frowning:

#22

This may be my favorite thread ever. Trying to think of an example…there are so many…

Recently my Mother called me in a panic. “I CRASHED THE CORPORATE SERVERS!” she screamed.

“Um, how?” I asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop

“I SENT ALL MY DOCUMENTS!” she replied, sanely.

“Wait, what? What do you mean?”

“I meant to send one resume file in my documents AND I SENT ALL OF MY DOCUMENTS!”

The blessing of getting my Mother on Mac is that I can take over her computer in a flash. I confirmed her story, she was attempting to send a 20 gig email from her home computer through the corporate email server to her client including all her personal files…tax returns, budgets, pictures, etc.

I deleted the email out of her outbox. She thinks I am a god. :smiley:

#23

My parents aren’t too bad.

Though watching my 3 year old open a web browser, go to playhouse Disney website, log in, and begin playing games and watching videos, I realized that he’ll probably be posting about me in this thread soon.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

#24

Mom calls last night.

Me: Hi Mom, what’s up?

Mom: I want to buy one of those thingys for your sisters birthday. (Her birthday is next month.)

Me: … Ok, what type of thing?

Mom: One of those game thingys she likes.

Me: For the Wii?

Mom: Is that the game thingy? It’s the one where she waves the stick around.

Me: Yes, that’s the one. What game does she want?

Mom: I wrote it down. I just need to know that place on-the-line where I can buy it.

The next 20 minutes are spent explaining the various websites where you can buy things online. Eventually steering her towards Amazon. Then walking here through buying it.

Glossary of Mom-speak.

On-the-line - Her all purpose word for anything web related
Thingy - As versatile as Smurf. Could mean anything from doughnut to 1976 Oldsmobile Toranado.

#25

I can do you one better. My mom was a programmer back in the day and my dad was an engineer. A few years ago, I got a call from my dad. He was trying to program a fuel injector for his old british sports car - not original, obviously - and was having trouble getting the compiler to work. After a few minutes of talking about it, he figured it out himself.

#26

A month or so ago I was at my parents house helping my Dad with something to do with his computer again — I forgot what specifically.
But after I sucessfully fixed his computer problem he said “I’m such I nerd. I don’t understand any of this stuff.”

(sigh). Oh Dad. I luv ya, but ya don’t even know how to use the word “nerd” correctly.:slight_smile:

#27

My Dad just got a Samsung Galaxy S. It’s his first smartphone and I’m having the worst time trying to get him up to speed with it. Yesterday I showed him how to organize his home screens by dragging and dropping icons. I noticed that when he wanted to remove and icon, he dragged it on a path avoiding the other icons, as if bumping the icons together was possible.

#28

Ack! That’s scary. They will be like, “why can’t my parents type with their brains like we can? It’s not so hard to learn to use these brain implants!”

That is sad. Total dweeb!

#29

phone rings

Me: Hello Mom.

Mom: What’s your face-thingey?

Me: What?

Mom: Your face-thingey! How can I send you animals if I don’t have your face-thingey?

Me: I wish I could pretend I knew what you’re talking about but I have no clue.

Mom sighs: Call your sister.

Mom hangs up

I call my sister

Me: Mom just called and asked me about my face-thingey and sending me animals, any idea what she’s talking about?

Sister: Sorry, my fault. I got her playing a game on Facebook and she keeps sending me animals. Now she thinks she should send them to everybody.

Me: You know I’m not on Facebook.

Sister: I know, I’ll explain it to her later.

My mom is now on Facebook, yet another reason for me to never join.

#30

Mom meets Farmville. Scary combo. (:

#31

Bringing this thread back!

Had to stop at the parents this morning because mom called and said the computer wasn’t working right. It went something like this.

Me: What’s wrong with it? What’s it doing?

Mom: When I go on-the-line I get these little thingeys all over the place and I can’t go where I want to go.

I open Explorer (wince) and the screen fills with pop-ups

Me: Did you get the antivirus software I told you to get?

Mom: Yes, I wrote it down so I would get the right one.

I spend 20 minutes digging through directories trying to find Webroot

Me: Where is it, Mom?

She gets up and goes down the hall. Comes back a couple minutes later with a brand new copy of Webroot 2013, unopened.

Me: sigh You know you have to install it on the computer? Just buying it doesn’t make it work.

Mom: WELL, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW!?!?

Dad: after being suspiciously quiet during the whole exchange I told you, you had to open the damn thing.

Mom: YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!

Dad returns his focus to the TV

Me: sigh I’ll take care of it.

I installed the antivirus, scanned the computer, removed over 700 threats, then set up automatic updates and scans

Me: Call me if you have anymore problems.

Glossary of Mom terms-
on-the-line - Mom’s all purpose word for the internet
thingeys - As versatile as smurf, could mean anything from applesauce to 1957 Studebaker Station Wagon.

#32

ahh the similarity to my life is astounding.

My in-laws are wonderful people but being in their 70’s they are sadly overwhelmed by “the computer”. So naturally we have to step in often to aid them in their times of trouble.

As a case study in this, I seem to see them use their desktop computers ( for several decades now) and never build a conceptual model in their heads as to where the similarities lie and how the device behaves. Things like “bring up task manager”, “close out your browser”, “clear your cache”, “ping and address” are so foreign to them that I may as well be asking them to sing Hungarian Love Ballads.

Finally we ( wife and I ) just dumb down the in-laws experience to the bare minimum. In short they “surf the web”, “print some directions off” ( even though they have a GPS), “play solitaire” their need for a desktop is surprisingly limited.

Our next move is to find a “friendly bullet proof” tablet that they cannot ( hopefully ) muck up too much. I swear the market potential for the “Jitterbug” of tablets is enormous.

OB

being and engineer means you family will always ask you to perform gratis efforts on their needs ( computers, electrics, home repair etc.) … If I was a baker I’m sure they would not ask as much of my time to prepare them some cookies :slight_smile:

#33

Before I got smart and installed LogMeIn on my Mother-in-Law’s computer I would spend hours on the phone having her painfully try to articulate the problem and then it would take up to 40 minutes for me to describe in detail every keystroke and mouse click she would need to do. God forbid she would have to right click on something, that would take 20 minutes by itself to walk her through.

One time we went back and forth Who is on First style with the following:

Me: Ok, press the start button.
M-i-L: I don’t see it.
Me: Look down. Lower left. See it?
M-i-L: No
Me: Ok, maybe your task bar is minimized
M-i-L: I don’t know what that means
Me: Don’t worry. Um. What do you see on the lower right of your screen?
M-i-L: The time
Me: Ok. So the task bar is not minimized.
M-i-L: I still don’t know what that mans
Me: Don’t worry. What do you see on the lower left of your screen?
M-i-L: The word Start
Me: Great. Press the Start button
M-i-L: I can’t
Me: Why?
M-i-L: I can’t find it.
Me: <blinks> What do you mean?
M-i-L: There is no start button!
Me: You just told me you see it!
M-i-L: <awkward pause> … so you want me to click the Start button?
Me: YES!
M-i-L: Ok. Next?
Me: Wait. You were looking for a key on your keyboard that was labeled Start weren’t you?
M-i-L: <longer awkward pause> … maybe …

#34

Ok, so it’s not parents but my old girlfriend works at the public library. I was there talking to her once and she was called to help an older gentleman on the computer. He was trying to print a document and couldn’t make it happen. She was directing him and I heard

“Move the mouse up to the top of the screen, no no, leave the mouse on the table.”

I looked over and he’s trying to physically press the toolbar buttons with the mouse.