LIKE vinegar and water; power and stupidity; hipster jeans and thongs; old people and technology just don't mix.
Old people are rubbish at anything that's small, silver, and has lots of buttons on it - and that's a fact.
Take my nana and grandad for instance.
advertisement
My mum bought them both a mobile phone for Christmas. Those special "so easy a five-year-old could use it" ones where all you can do is make calls and text - none of the fancy extras like cameraphones and MP3 players. They don't even have colour screens.
Mum had thought it was about time they got rid of the last ones she got them years ago which were as big as housebricks, had telescopic aerials, and were more often than not left lying turned off in the kitchen draw.
At first everything went swimmingly, she keyed in everyone's number into the phone book and set them up with a cheery ringtone each. Great.
But things soon went downhill when my boyfriend got a message out of the blue one night reading "Hello. This is grandad. Who are you?"
The fact that my grandad refers to himself as "grandad" to complete strangers tickled me.
But after this small set-back things seemed to improve and, keen to encourage them, my mum and her siblings got into the habit of ringing on the mobile when they wanted to get in touch.
But one day after both nana and grandad failed to answer their phones my mum decided to try the house phone, which was picked up immediately.
"Why didn't you answer your mobile?" mum asked.
"I did," insisted my nana, "But you have to wait for the music to finish first don't you?"
Poor old nana - I can just imagine the pair of them hunched over the phone as it flashed and rang, waiting for the noise to stop.
It clearly runs in the family, this complete lack of technological savvy; my dad has always been a bit of a Luddite with anything like that.
We grew up in a household where the video player was never set to the right time, butter knives acted as screwdrivers, and if anything more advanced than changing a light bulb was required a handyman had to be called in.
He really excelled himself after attempting to release a tape of Edward Scissorhands that'd got stuck in the VHS player, using a knife and fork.
The irony of the film title wasn't lost on the man in the video shop when we returned it the following day in tatters.
Still, my dad handed over a £70 fine, albeit with a smile.
Poor dad often mused that he'd be all right with a gadget as long as it had a large button marked "stop" and one marked "go" and nothing else, but that the makers of these things damn insisted on putting hundreds of buttons on that nobody knew how to use anyway.
Hopefully this curse won't be passed down to me, although I've got a sneaking suspicion it might do, as already I can feel myself being left behind with things like downloading music, using Bluetooth (what is that anyway?), and watching things on YouTube.
Posted by: Ian the Beancounter, Darwen on 10:57am Tue 19 Feb 08
What an excellent way to ostracise and antagonise your older readers! I have a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone which I use to its full potential, including the Bluetooth attachments. I look after all the gadgets at home (something my 26 year old daughter cannot get to grips with), and I look after the computers and some pretty sophisticated software at work. Unfortunately, I don't have a PDA, but that will soon be rectified.
Miss Dutton, please keep your stereotypes to yourself if you do not wish to cause offence.
What an excellent way to ostracise and antagonise your older readers! I have a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone which I use to its full potential, including the Bluetooth attachments. I look after all the gadgets at home (something my 26 year old daughter cannot get to grips with), and I look after the computers and some pretty sophisticated software at work. Unfortunately, I don't have a PDA, but that will soon be rectified.
Miss Dutton, please keep your stereotypes to yourself if you do not wish to cause offence.
Posted by: Ian the Beancounter, Darwen on 11:28am Tue 19 Feb 08
[quote][bold]Hardworker[/bold] wrote:
Ian your one in a million mate,give the lass a break i know where she is coming from..lol now how do i turn this bloody thing off..He,He..[/quote] Hardworker.....so do I, but I do fulfil another stereotype - the grumpy old man! It's the prerogative of people like me to whinge about youngsters' comments about age!!
Hardworker wrote:
Ian your one in a million mate,give the lass a break i know where she is coming from..lol now how do i turn this bloody thing off..He,He..
Hardworker.....so do I, but I do fulfil another stereotype - the grumpy old man! It's the prerogative of people like me to whinge about youngsters' comments about age!!
Posted by: Joseph Yossarian, London on 6:28pm Tue 19 Feb 08
Whilst it may be at least in part possible that the older generation might prefer the technology of Fred Dibnah to the technology of the Sky+ Box, it is certainly beyond reasonable doubt that the older generation has a better grasp of the written word than your average young telegraph blogger.
Whilst it may be at least in part possible that the older generation might prefer the technology of Fred Dibnah to the technology of the Sky+ Box, it is certainly beyond reasonable doubt that the older generation has a better grasp of the written word than your average young telegraph blogger.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
