Senior PC: Get Your (Grandmother's) Game On!

My dad is pretty computer- and web-savvy.  He's had a computer since about 1985 (maybe earlier) and he's definitely a power user.  He was also born in the immediate post-war era (that's WWII, people), so he's not a spring chicken (but he ain't old, either!).  My mother is four days younger than my father (yes, really).  She despises her computer, although she's far better at using it than many people her age.  I often push her to the limit with sending her MMS messages and making her join Twitter, and it frustrates her easily and quickly when things go wrong.  But she's a trooper, and she actually carries a BlackJack as a phone, so hey, it's all good.

I've tried to convince my grandmother that she needs a computer too.  She's 84 years old.  I don't call her often enough, and I don't go see her often enough, but I would keep in much better and more frequent contact with her if she just had email.  She scoffs at the idea, even when I offer to give her one of my old ones.  But, my father and uncle have convinced her to carry a cell phone with her, and she's doing it (even in the yard), so there may be hope.

Maybe within the next 10 years, users her age will be more comfortable with a computer.  I was reading Engadget today and it seems that Microsoft UK is trying to develop a "simplistic user interface and come tweaked to handle tasks such as managing prescriptions and photos".  That would be so cool; I know my grandmother is "afraid" of the computer because it seems so complicated.

And who knows, she just might join Twitter too...

Comments

[Topsy-Techie]

If she does join Twitter, please let me know, cause I wanna follow her Twitters..."Joined this thing because my granddaughter guilted me into it"...."Put Bengay on my shoulder"..."Ate half a cantaloupe and looked for my missing bottom denture"..."Called my granddaughter to ask if I could stop doing this now"...

[Heather]

Topsy, you're so right; I never thought about what she would actually tweet if she used Twitter! And, that's probably what she would say (minus the dentures; she actually still has all her teeth!).