I have tried to get my mom to get a computer telling her how useful she would find the internet but she is having none of it.

Are the older generations missing out on the technology of today?

Does your parent/grandparent use the computer?

I am having enough fun with my Parents getting use to their mobile phones.

My mum keeps ringing me up and asking me about menu options on a phone I have never seen before.

It took her 2 hours to text me a message which I replied to straight away and then she rang me on her landline to check I had got it. :D

Bless them :D

I have given my folks my old iMac, since I've traded up. they've had it in the house for six months and it only got set up (by me) last week.

My Dad is really keen to learn and is on there (dial-up connection) nightly. However, I have now become his personal IT advisor. I can't tell you what a pain that is, but I reckon once he's got his head around the basics, he'll be sorted.

My Mom is a different story. She won't go near it. She keps comparing it to ehr mobile phone, which she's had for a year or two, but never switches on or takes out. I keep telling her that using a computer is far less taxing than cooking a Christmas Dinner, and she manages that every year!

The other night I e-mailed them some photos of our new house (I live quite a way from them) and they got so excited... How cool is that?!

Tell your Dad to keep at it, theres a lot of pleasure/knowledge sitting there in that computer. I was well in my 60's when I first tackled it. Went to lessons, where the first thing he taught me was how to switch it on. I had never even learned to typed before so if I can do your dad can.

haxel

my parents are getting there, although they don't cope too well if the pc does something unexpected.
I don't hold out much hope for my gran.

Luckily you don't get a lot of pop-ups (actually you don't get any) with Mac software, and it's a lot more user-friendly, but my worry is that they'll become au-fait with the Mac, then not be able to transfer the knowledge to PCs at work.

As I remember. making the transistion from PCs to Mac for me was a little strange, but it didn't take long to get used to. However, I've been playing around on computers since the early 80s... They haven't!

Still, they'll get it.

Yes... My Mum has a pc... and is quite good...

She talks to me through MSN :lol: cheaper than phone calls... when i lived in bournemouth i used to put my web cam onto so she could see her daughter... :D lol I will probably do the same once i get settled here :)

She's even joined te friends reunited site and was contacted by one of her school friends from years ago... as far as i am aware they are still in touch...

I bought my dad a pc for his birthday a few weeks ago, for he is not very mobile and loves gaming.

....after the first 4 weeks of filling that b****y technical support fole, he can`t keep my mum of the thing.

A decent gaming computer with BB connection used to research a family tree and chat rooms.... should have got them a used P1 instead!!!!!

My Dad can cope with a computer, however when it goes wrong it's another matter :P. He usually uses the computer for internet banking and for the odd bit of typing.

My mum does occasionally. She isn't very good with them, strange considering she uses computers at work and therefore more than I do!

Don't even ask about my grandparents :lol: they wouldn't know where to start!

Originally posted by John
I have tried to get my mom to get a computer telling her how useful she would find the internet but she is having none of it.

Are the older generations missing out on the technology of today?

Does your parent/grandparent use the computer? Hi I have had my pc for 5 years & I am pretty good with it,my wife finds technology a bit daunting,she has trouble with the mobile & I have learned my grandson how to use the pc,so we oldies can learn you younguns as well.Tell your Mom to give your comp a go & when she takes over your pc don't complain LOL

My father- in- law does and he's 71. I work in the education sector and we provide computer courses for everyone and every ability. Twice a week we have a group of older people coming to use our I.T facilities. I know a lot of people, young and old are frightened of technology but it opens up a whole new world. It is especially useful if they are tracing their family tree.

My father- in- law loves computing and I am responsible for his interest as I got him to join a computers for the terrified course a few years ago.

My father, when he visists, and sees me and Mr PT using our PC, he always looks astounded, and says how he couldn't figure out the first thing to begin using computers. He's only 65, so it's not like he's decrepid!

Someone mentioned the problems with her mother's reluctance to use a mobile phone...

I can tell you about my dad, encountering a mobile phone.

I bought my dad a mobile phone the other christmas.

He's not been a well bloke, and I wanted him to have some means of contacting help, if he took poorly, or the car broke down...

When I gave it to him, he looked, puzzled, at it, and said;

"Oh, Bl**dy hell! What's tha bought me that for? Tha knows *I* have trouble lighting 't' bl**dy gas, me!"

Well, we just fell about laughing at him

older folk, and their techno-phobia! lol

PT

Originally posted by Plain Talker
My father, when he visists, and sees me and Mr PT using our PC, he always looks astounded, and says how he couldn't figure out the first thing to begin using computers. He's only 65, so it's not like he's decrepid!

Someone mentioned the problems with her mother's reluctance to use a mobile phone...

I can tell you about my dad, encountering a mobile phone.

I bought my dad a mobile phone the other christmas.

He's not been a well bloke, and I wanted him to have some means of contacting help, if he took poorly, or the car broke down...

When I gave it to him, he looked, puzzled, at it, and said;

"Oh, Bl**dy hell! What's tha bought me that for? Tha knows *I* have trouble lighting 't' bl**dy gas, me!"

Well, we just fell about laughing at him

older folk, and their techno-phobia! lol

PT

:lol:

My Dad uses the PC all the time, he knows how to use the MS Office applications and check his Hotmail, which is enough for him.

Mum though is reluctant to even dust round the PC for fear of accidentally pressing something.

My husband and i are retired, my son kept telling us to get a pc but had no time to help us with one (of course), we practiced on an old one for months, mainly solitair, tried taking a basic class at first, had no idea what they were talking about, when out and bought a brand new top of the line pc, played around with it for 6 months, love it, now i'm ready to take a class again as i'll know at least what there talking about now.

so my advice for us old people, use one for yourself, play with it, make mistakes,get use to the mouse best way is solitair, then you'll be confident to take a basic course, this way at least you'll be able to know enough to ask the teacher questions on it.
you realy have to know the basics to take a basic course, there are NO BASIC BASIC courses out there.

I am 21, 3 times over and came from Amstrad, Amiga (any Elite for PC ?) and now I don`t know what I use. It has had that many bits taken out and stuck on Heinz 57 I think.Have completed one course at Square Mile and on my second. It is good fun.

Originally posted by Plain Talker
. He's only 65, so it's not like he's decrepid!


Hey !....thanks for that PT. I'm 65 and still building the odd PC as well as providing support for people half my age. :P

Last Sunday's job was showing my granddaughter how to use CDex and get the tracks onto the player we bought for her birthday.

I think though that old people completely new to it would be better with an Apple machine than a Windows based PC.

Originally posted by Greybeard
Hey !....thanks for that PT. I'm 65 and still building the odd PC as well as providing support for people half my age. :P

Last Sunday's job was showing my granddaughter how to use CDex and get the tracks onto the player we bought for her birthday.

I think though that old people completely new to it would be better with an Apple machine than a Windows based PC.

The older generations aren’t incapable of using a computer. It is a case of awareness of what they can do for you and that it isn't as daunting as it makes out to be. IMHO, it will probably take at most 2 more generations for a more even/widespread exposure of computing across all ages simply because computers were not part of the education in school pre-80s. If you start a poll on here on how old everyone is, I suspect, you will find it is heavily weighted in the range of 0-40 than 40+ for the reason I have described.

my dad has probably forgotten more about computers than most people will ever know....... you cant get through to my parents because people are always phoning him up asking him to sort out their computers.

hello,im a nannan to 10 and a bit g/children,5 of then live in germany,i was terrified of the thing at first,now i wouldnt be without it,and i have a mobile that takes pics too,you can learn an old dog new tricks:clap:

My Grandad surfs the net and he is 90 this year. Also he has a mobile and sends texts messages.