Mom vs Cell Phone

CoyoteMark · Mar 26, 2008

I recently bought mom a cell phone and put her on the family plan with me. 
So we sat down to go over some of the basics- 
Me: "Ok, to check voice mail, press and hold 1 until it says 'dialing voice mail'. Then listen to the instructions." 
Mom: "It is asking me if I want to review deleted messages- do I want to review deleted messages?" 
Me: "No" 
Mom: "It's not saying anything anymore." 
Me: Looking at the phone- "You are not in voice mail anymore. Try again- press and hold 1; and when it asks if you want to review deleted messages ignore it and listen to the rest of the instructions." 
Mom: "Ok..." Listening to phone... Hears my voice message... "OH! What do I do now?" 
Me: "Listen to the instructions..." By then the instructions have passed. I tell mom to wait and listen for the instructions again. 
Mom: "Ok, do I press 7 or 9?" 
Me: "Do you want to save the message or delete it?" 
Mom: "Delete it. You're special, but not that special." <img alt="roll_eyes.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/roll_eyes.gif"> 
Me: "Then press 7" 
At which point she presses and holds the 7 key, which is the speed dial for my brother's home phone. Both mom and my brother are surprised to be talking to each other. They have a nice conversation. 
Mom: "What did I do wrong? Did I delete the message?" 
Me: "Well, you pressed and held the 7 key, rather than just pressing it, so that activated the speed dial. 
Mom: "What is speed dial? Just how long should I press the 7 key for? Why did it jump out of voice mail?" 
Valid questions all. And so went our session for another hour. Mom is smart. She's an accountant. She does great with computer programs that she is familiar with. But everything that was completely intuitive to me about using a cell phone was completely un-intuitive to her. We finally did get the voice mail thing straightened out and even sent text messages back and forth, but it wasn't easy. 
Have you experienced the "tech intuition gap" when explaining things to your parents? How did you get the info. across? <img alt="confused.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/confused.gif"> 
Now she's in Guatamala with friends, where AT&T says that she should be able to get reception. Since international roaming charges are so expensive I told her to text me rather than calling (50 cents per text vs. $2.25/min roaming). 
I sent her a text about an hour ago and am waiting for the reply... <img alt="huh.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/huh.gif">

wyrillco · Mar 26, 2008

Yes. My mom acts like she's stupid when it comes to using the remotes for her tv/stereo/cable box. 
She's not stupid. The woman can do anything. I have no idea why she won't just learn the damn things.

4boysmom · Mar 26, 2008

Um... when I need my watch re-set (time change) I hand it to my son. 
Don't even get me started on my cell phone. I just tell people not to leave voice mail 'cuz I don't know how to get into voice mail. 
Yah, I'm stupid. But, somehow I manage to keep the family stuff together.

Martin · Mar 26, 2008

Tried to show an older lady how to use the system we were developping for her. 
She moved her mouse upward, in 3 dimensions!

Hanging Jury · Mar 26, 2008

My Father is in his 60's and he bought an iPhone. It didn't come with any instructions and he has that thing all figured out. But yeah, I've run into the intuitive gap/disconnect you're talking about. It can be hard to explain....

Stitcher · Mar 26, 2008

My mom is like that.... 
except...she'll learn ONE way to do something....like use the up/down button on the remote...and won't learn any other way. 
So to switch channels, you have to go up up up up up up up..... 
That's fine if your flicking....but if you want to go from say, HBO to NBC on her tv........it's nearly 20 minutes of down down down down down down down..... 
lol 
But, ya gotta love 'em!

CoyoteMark · Mar 26, 2008

No sons of my own, but I can imagine that "keeping the family stuff together" is no small task with 4 boys. That takes a lot of organization, good memory, and multitasking skills. Stupid- I think not. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"> 
What is different about using this message board than setting your watch or checking voice mail?

bethebunny · Mar 26, 2008

Every time mom and dad go on vacation my DH and I receive random cell calls they are not aware they are making. Sometimes we get to hear them arguing in the car because they don't know they accidentally speed dialed one of us. 
Last time, mom said she had the phone in her pocket and she was leaning over the hotel sink, brushing her teeth. She hears my voice saying "Hello, Hello, Hello" - holds the phone to her ear - and I say "Mom - it's Julie" and she says "Julie Howard?" Uh.... yeah.... (except that's my maiden name.) 
Their vacations are fun for us, too!

wherestheportojohn · Mar 26, 2008

my MIL (age 82) can't: 
change a freaking lightbulb <img alt="roll_eyes.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/roll_eyes.gif"> 
re-program answering machine (DH was over there for the BILLIONTH TIME last week when she, yet again, messed something up) 
use her cell phone 
turn on or off the goddam tv with a remote, without fucking something up....yes, it is that bad 
Thank goodness she has no computer!!! 
My mom (also age 82) has no computer. 
But she DOES know how to do all of the above gadget-related tasks.

ElDuderino · Mar 26, 2008

I bought my parents one of those digital universal remotes a few years ago, since they had like 15 remotes at home between the TV, cable, DVD player, VCR, stereo... boy was that a mistake.

wyrillco · Mar 26, 2008

We were thinking of getting my folks one of those harmony programmable remotes. Maybe not. <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"> 
4BM, you aren't dumb, and neither is my mom! She just doesn't want to learn that stuff. I have stuff I don't want to learn, like how to work on my bike. I could, I just don't wanna. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

clb · Mar 26, 2008

My mom was an accountant. For 25 years. Then she retired and puttered around her cabin on the river when dad was still around. 
She does not have a home computer. Oy.

diablita · Mar 26, 2008

In college I worked in a Dept Store on summer breaks. One year I worked in the electronics department, and had lots of cute grandma's and grandpa's ask me to teach them how to use the answering machines they'd buy. A lot of times, they were just lonely. 
It always made me laugh when they'd want help recording their greetings. B/c the minute they'd leave the store, the greeting would be lost. But that didn't stop them. I had lots of repeat greeting customers. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

Auntie Moe · Mar 26, 2008

my mother said she must be dead on Sunday when we Skyped my ILs on our laptop...with video. Because it was like a miracle!

refinnej10 · Mar 26, 2008

Several years ago, I had to teach my mother how to use a mouse. That was not fun. She would very carefully line the pointer up with the mouse and then hit "enter" without clicking. That doesn't work so well, by the way. Next came The Great Scroll Bar Panic, in which she accidentally clicked on the lower scroll bar, moving her document to the right. Panic ensued. We've gotten that all worked out. The next lesson will be Typing Without Caps Lock, You Can Do It! 
On the flip side, I had a jolly good time showing (not teaching or trying to create competence) Google Earth to my grandma. We were flying over Sydney looking for her old house. It was cool. Especially after I convinced her that she had to make zoom noises for it to work. <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif">

Buxtehude · Mar 26, 2008

It's the opposite for me! My mom's the one who has it all figured out.

coacht · Mar 26, 2008

When my MIL bought her first computer she couldn't figure out how to use the mouse. She kept picking it up and pointing it at the screen like a remote control while clicking away...... 
Last week we upgraded her Yahoo e-mail account. She called us the next day because she couldn't figure out how to send e-mails. The problem was that the "compose" button in the old format had changed to a "new" button in the new format.

rlemert · Mar 26, 2008

That's me with cell phones. If it's something that's important to me I can and will figure out how to do it, but 90% of the stuff cell phones can do these days just aren't important to me. 
- Text messaging - why bother? If I'm using the phone it's because I want to TALK to someone. 
- Fancy ringtones - is there something wrong with the original one? 
- Cell phone camera - I get better pictures using something designed for that purpose. You know, something called . . . . . a camera! 
I'm currently being a pain at the cell phone store because I want a combined cell phone/PDA, but I want it without a camera, I don't want email capability, and I don't want internet access (whether part of a plan or [especiall] on a pay-per-use basis).

Alternative School Grrl · Mar 26, 2008

I stopped trying to teach my mother in law (A Masters level educator, BTW) computer stuff when I saw her actually pick the mouse up off the table to try to get it to point to something on the screen.

Arrojo · Mar 26, 2008

My stepmom is actually pretty good with the computer (age 78 ). She does graphics and stuff for her ladies club. But Dad (84) has computer phobia. He won't go near it. She prints off e-mails for him, then he'll write a reply on the printed off piece of paper and snail mail it to me. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

Mom vs Cell Phone

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