How technologically adroit/inept are your parents?

[Jaguar]

My dad is okay with stuff he's learned to do by routine (like MS word, email, search engines, that sort of stuff.) He knows how to delete files, and he understands the concepts of "folders" and using different drives. He is still working on the concept of "downloading."

My mom can access MS Word (because I put an icon for it on the desktop) and she can type. Period. To give you an idea of how helpless she is, she centers titles for things she writes by pressing space bar until it looks right.

I brought this subject up because my dad just paid $50 to get a CD copied twice. Both my sister and I have CD RW drives.

[reds4ever]

thats nothing, my old man calls me up when the batteries in the TV remote run out (i kid you not) thinking the TV is broke ( this has happened more than once), it's not is if he's losing it or old (well he's 60, not senile and has got a great maths brain) it's just he retired in 1990 JUST before you needed know more than just how to opperate your brain and a pen

He still doesn't quite 'get' who i'm 'talking' too when my phones engaged when he calls. ie i'm on the internet

[reds4ever]

Jag

i think you hit the nail on the head with the term 'to do by routine', some oldies can't seem to make the logical leaps that seem obvious to us. give it 40 years we'll be in their shoes but with different technology

[Asher]

My mom is totally clueless with the stuff.

My dad I'd classify as "above average". He can reformat drives, reinstall windows, troubleshoot, set up a home theatre, etc.

[cavebear]

My parents are pre-computer. Both are past 75. Even though my father was an engineer and analytical math type of person, he won't even consider trying a computer. He worked in a mechanical and electrical world, not an electronic one. If it doesn't operate in a tangible physical manner, he is lost at sea.

But even my brothers and sisters are computer-illiterate. One can do email and word-processing, but she wouldn't even dream of trying to use a spreadsheet.

[reds4ever]

asher

anyone above 40 who isn't int he IT business and feels confident formating and installing windows is doing pretty good IMO

[Asher]

Originally posted by reds4ever
asher

anyone above 40 who isn't int he IT business and feels confident formating and installing windows is doing pretty good IMO

A long long time ago (with our 386) he was the computer guy in the family. I've taken over the role.

He's been using computers since the late 70s, so he's doin alright...

[reds4ever]

heres one for you all....

a 27 year old friend of mine (ie not senile) moved housed just before christmas, the guy asked me weather his incoming emails would still be going to his old house address!

[ixnay]

My mom can work with FTP to update her website, deal with Windows fairly adeptly, and play games. My dad uses a computer at work, but other than that he doesn't really use one around home.

[loinburger]

My dad's an electrical engineer, so he's pretty adept at technological mumbo-jumbo by necessity (though he doesn't much care for computers -- when I said that I was going to major in computer science, he rolled his eyes and said "Why don't you become a real engineer instead?). My mom's mostly clueless, partly due to technical ineptness (math etc. was always her weakest point in college and beyond), but primarily from lack of trying (why bother learning computers when there're three engineers in the house? Or two-and-a-half, depending on who you ask).

My Grandpa did pretty well to learn computers for being a 80-year-old who never used a computer up until five-or-ten years ago (he was a mechanical engineer, but he stuck to slide rules and let the "propellor heads" handle the mainframes). My Grandma's pretty hopeless, but she's also the stubbornest person alive, and doesn't know how to deal with something that is even more inflexible than she is.

[Ishtar]

My parents won't touch 'em. When I got a new one last year, I gave them my old one. It's still sitting there..not even plugged into the wall.

I tried to get my mom to play Solitaire on one in a store once...she's scared to death she's gonna break it.

But...hey...what can I expect...they don't have cable tv... and won't even let me "give" them an answering machine for the phone.

[cavebear]

Originally posted by reds4ever
heres one for you all....

a 27 year old friend of mine (ie not senile) moved housed just before christmas, the guy asked me weather his incoming emails would still be going to his old house address!

Technological stupidity is evidently not limited to the senile. LOL! That one made my day...

Um, maybe you should have told him that he needs to bring his computer over to the old address and set it up there once a week to get his email. Think of all the hilarity you missed out on!

[cavebear]

Originally posted by reds4ever
asher

anyone above 40 who isn't int he IT business and feels confident formating and installing windows is doing pretty good IMO

I'm not in the IT business and I'm over 40. I'm not too sure about installing operating systems, but I've never met an application I couldn't wrestle to the ground in about a week.

[General Ludd]

My mom is clueless.


My dad was a complete geek, and a high-school computer teacher. I've been using computers since I've been about 4 years old because of him. I'm not so sure I'm happy about that, though.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by cavebear


Technological stupidity is evidently not limited to the senile. LOL! That one made my day...

Um, maybe you should have told him that he needs to bring his computer over to the old address and set it up there once a week to get his email. Think of all the hilarity you missed out on!

youre right, i didn't think of that, as soon as i started laughing at him he realized it was a stupid question..if only i could have kept a poker face....