I like the above comic because one of the disadvantages of my new TV/DVD system is I have more remotes to keep track of. It’s good mental exercise. 🙂
The generation gap works both ways, of course. A girl came to my door a while back and asked if she could use my phone to call her mother. I said “Sure” and pointed to our dial wall phone. She looked puzzled so I asked her if she knew how to use it. No. So I dialed her mother for her. 😉
oh gosh…
did I tell you about the young lassie at Uni who came in our space and noticed I was texting someone and she said
“I think it so neat that you old folk know how to text”
I was lost for words!
A few days later she said “gee I am impressed with you…you are using all your fingers to type with”
I wasn’t so lost for words and replied “well when I was your age I went to a school that taught you do it almost blindfold – a bib tied around your neck and down over the keyboard”
she replied “did you have a computer then?”
“no, it was a manual typewriter, it had ribbons and you had to hit an arm to make it return to the beginning…”
at that point she was lost for words!
however, on the matter of the whole computer and it’s buttons and so I am not savvy with it at all…back when I took another business course early 90s the tutor was sure I knew all about the computer BECAUSE I COULD TOUCH TYPE
Everytime he showed the others, mostly young ones he would take over my computer and have me stand at the back. Of course, I tried to tell the guy that “just because I can touch type doesn’t mean I know what the other buttons on the Windows 3.1 do”
Boy did he get a SURPRISE when I finally printed out my business plan and hastly he had to help rectify all the problems that inadvertently HE HAD CAUSED!
.-= Cathy in NZ´s last blog ..RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY! =-.
Cathy,
What great examples of how we can’t trust all of our assumptions! Thanks.
Grannymar,
I don’t have a cell phone, because when I go out alone it’s only a few blocks from the apartment. My husband has one for emergencies because he goes up into the mountains by himself. They’re great devices when you need them.
Rummuser,
That reminds me of the hours and hours I spent teaching my 90-year-old mother-in-law to use AOL for e-mail. It would have been easier if I had been allowed to show her when we were there for a family visit. But no, we had to do it by phone after I got back home. When I was there my husband scoffed. “Becky (a granddaughter) knows a lot more about computers than you do. She can show Mother. They don’t need you.” I still laugh when I think of it. Becky and her parents beamed at the time, but of course she had never used AOL so was helpless. I have teased my husband about it once or twice. 😉 My mother-in-law did learn to use e-mail and was amazed at my patience and teaching ability, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
The only remote control in my house is with the mini Hi-fi. I don’t use it. Switching the Hi-fi on and off manually ensures I get exercise and it helps keep my circulation going.
I do have a cell phone that comes everywhere with me. I have almost forced some of my contemporaries to learn how to text and CARRY their cell phones with them. They do and wonder how they lived without it.
I do hope that all of you who carry a cell phone have an ICE number in it!
.-= Grannymar´s last blog ..Modern Times =-.
The number of times that I have been looked at in amazement by young people because I blog and am comfortable with the computer is not funny. I had a bit of problem learning how to use the new remote devise for the set top box receiver for digital TV channels, but Ranjan taught me and I in turn had to teach my father the same a few times. I was remembering the story about how the father in his old age reminds his children about being patient with him just as he was with them when they were children.
.-= Rummuser´s last blog ..Speed! =-.
We don’t have cell phones. I wanted to blow whistles to show our locations in big stores. (It saves time to split the shopping between us.) Tom didn’t like that idea AT ALL.