I printed out many driving directions on Google maps that took me and my family on many vacations across the Bible Belt. After a while, I figured out that the return trip was the exact opposite route as the departing route. Since ink for my printer cost more than the printer itself, I decided to save money by only printing the directions from our departure. This worked fairly well until we went to an event in Memphis where I ended up in Arkansas as I tried to return home by following the opposite of the departure directions. How was I supposed to know that downtown Memphis is comprised almost entirely of one way streets? Why couldn’t Memphis be like California where almost everything goes both ways?
It’s hard to imagine our lives without our smart phones and electronic gadgets now. Even though my kids can’t remember life without the internet, I try to explain to them that it really hasn’t been around that long. Although Al Gore invented it in the early 90s, wide-spread use didn’t really begin until 1995-96. I remember vividly when the internet became mainstream as I had subscribed to America Online shortly after completing Windows 3.1 for Dummies. I’ll never forget the $500 phone bill from the long distance connection required to sign on. I also remember the $150 charge from AOL for usage in excess of my 10 free monthly hours.
Over time, I became an avid user of the internet and the many technologies that evolved from it. I began banking online, used Napster to steal music and burn CDs, searched for jobs, and completed my MBA online. Although I might be considered a geek by some, I’m not quite qualified to join the elite squad at Best Buy. I do consider it quite the compliment, however, when people approach me for help with their software and gadgets. You wouldn’t believe how smart some people think you are simply because you can make a chart in Excel.
I enjoy helping people whether it’s much effort or not. Older individuals, however, are a different story. I’ll help an old lady cross the street, but teaching her how to log on to a computer is a different story. Everyone has heard someone say that senior citizens shouldn’t be allowed a driver’s license. I have no problem with the elderly driving. I am often mistaken for a senior citizen myself as my car creeps along the roadway (gas is expensive; can’t afford to waste it!). In my opinion, they can drive as long as they want to as long as the car doesn’t have satellite radio, gps navigation, electric windows, or anything else that resembles technology.
My objections with the elderly’s use of technology are based on several years of experiences helping my parents and others perform functions ranging from setting an atomic clock to formatting a hard drive. I joke about the clocks, but formatting the hard drive was no laughing matter.
I had formatted a friend’s dad’s hard drive and re-installed Windows on because he had complained that his desktop had become too slow. It had become slow because it was consumed with temporary internet files and hidden spyware. After the lengthy process of formatting and re-loading windows, I verified that that his computer was in like-new condition. He called me back two days later complaining that I didn’t get all of the files off of his computer. Since he had paid me $50 to fix his computer, I felt that I owed it to him to investigate. He claimed that the same files that were on there before were still on there. He was right.
After he had gotten his computer back, he went to the same sites that had infected his computer to begin with. Nevertheless, I burned another 2 ½ hours formatting and reloading Windows on his computer again. Afterwards, I showed him that the file locations that contained the garbage infecting his computer were vanquished. I had earned that $50. What started as an easy pay day had turned into legitimate work. I never wanted to format a computer again. As it turned out, I wouldn’t have to. He informed me a week later that he would get someone else to fix his computer this time as I didn’t get rid of the files that were causing his computer to slow down. Yes, he had been back to the same sites that originally caused his problems and the issued had returned.
As much as I try to avoid the elderly and technology, I have no choice but to help my parents when they ask. It’s my duty, after all. My mom is not a problem. She intentionally avoids anything that appears overly complicated for her. She still owns a VCR for crying out loud. She still calls me to set the clock on it, though.
My dad, on the other hand is a different story. My first encounter assisting him with his internet went unhinged. Well, it went unhinged for the most part. He eventually forgot his password for his router on his wireless internet connection. “It doesn’t have a password,” he insisted. Luckily, I was able to find the sticker containing the password on the bottom of his router.
I had set him up with wireless internet so he could stream Netflix and other channels on the Roku I had gotten him. He had overheard my brother and me talking about Netflix and some of the other free channels on the Roku, and he wanted to get in on this “free TV”. Within a month, however, he had cancelled his Netflix subscription and quit using the Roku. “There’s nothing on it,” he complained. I tried to explain to him how to use the search function to find what he wanted, but it was a losing battle.
After talking to him about my aunts whom he hadn’t talked to in almost a year because of the long distance charges associated with calling them, I explained to him the concept of video calling. He looked at me like I had claimed to have returned from an alien abduction or something, so I demonstrated a video call to my wife from my phone to her computer. I could tell that he was thoroughly impressed with the space age technology, so I bought him a web cam and set him up with a Skype account.
He made contact with his sisters and was enamored that he could see them on his computer monitor while he talked to them several miles away. Soon, he was calling me on Skype. Not once or twice, but all the time! After a few ignored Skype calls, he finally called me via his landline. “Why don’t you ever answer when I call you on the computer?’ He asked. I explained that Skype should be used for special occasions like long distance relationships. If he wanted to see me, he could just come over my house. I’m not sure if he liked my rationalization or not, but he soon gave up using Skype when even his sisters were ignoring his frequent video calls.
After he grew tired of Skype, he found another outlet for making long distance calls. Always one to leap at the “As seen on TV” offers, he had ordered a Magic Jack phone system. I had discovered this in a pile of magazines in his living room floor. “I couldn’t get it to work,” he replied when I asked him about it. He was delighted when I hooked it up for him. He even cancelled his local phone service. All was well until his yearly subscription ran out and he forgot his password to log on to his account and renew.
Recently, my dad asked me what I thought of e-readers. I told him that I liked them because I could adjust my fonts and make the text easier to read. “What’s a font?” he asked. “I won’t need my reading glasses now,” he said after I demonstrated how easy it was magically turn a regular e-book into a large print e-book for the old and nearly blind. Within a few days, he purchased a Nook similar to mine.
“How are you liking your e-reader?” I asked him a few days later. “I can’t get it to work,” he complained. It seemed like I had heard this before. I was beginning to understand why the Unabomber despised technology. “It only downloaded half the book,” he grumbled. As it turned out, he had only downloaded the free preview of James Patterson’s latest novel. Nevertheless, I showed him how to search for and download books, and then promised to show him where to find free books after he gets used to using his Nook.
I joke, but I am more than happy to help my dad with his technological problems. It’s my duty to help him just as it everyone’s duty to help their parents with whatever their needs are without complaining when doing it. For that matter, it’s my duty to help anyone when they are in need. If nothing else, it makes me feel better about myself. If I can help someone else accomplish something, there’s a slight chance they might even feel better about themselves.
Interestingly enough, while my dad takes a step forward, I relax on my drive home while streaming radio programs from the 1930s-50s on the Old Time Radio app on my phone. While he reads the newest bestseller, I’m listening to classic radio mysteries from the golden age of radio. I love the stories from the era when a night’s entertainment was driven by your imagination. Who would have though when these stories were told that you could see and talk to people miles away through your computer, or there would be books with no paper?
Technology has taken our world to new heights. It would definitely be hard to imagine our lives without our iPhones. Then again, we were making it alright before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs came along. While technologic changes move at warp speed, sometimes I think we should just slow down, put the gears on cruise, and enjoy the ride. Truthfully, sometimes I feel like channeling my inner George Jetson and shouting at the top of my lungs, “Jane, stop this crazy thing!” Then again, I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere if the technologies of the last 20 years had not happened. I would have to call my dad and have him show me how to read the Rand McNally Road Atlas.
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