Computers and the Elderly

I spoke with an elderly gentleman at my work who told me about this great email service he gets that not a lot of people know about, called 'Gmail'. He explained that it's hosted through the people who run the search engine 'Goggle'.

The best part is that I has corrected him on the pronunciation last month when he told me about it the first time.

Other stories about older people and computers?

I have a friend who's grandparents call the internet the 'tinterweb'

I took a picture of my grand parents and loaded it up on the computer, then told them it stole their souls. They never visited me again. True story.

I just peed a little.

True story.

having to sit down and explain to the elderly how to use their earthstink and aohell broadband services has pretty much soured me to the elderly being allowed to own computers.

Over the phone I tried to explain something to my parents
"click on the icon on the desktop"
"what's a desktop?"
"the screen"
"oh"
...more tedious help and advice later...
"now click on the icon again"
"I can't see it"
"what is on the screen"
"something about Google"
"that's your web browser"
"oh"
"minimise it - click on the '-' button, top right, now what you see is your desktop, see the icon???"
"yes"

Now they have XP, and I can just use Remote Assistance.

the fact that the old man knows what gmail is amazing

hell, my grandfolks can't even work a vcr or comprehend caller id...their brains might explode if faced with the internet

my dad used to barely understand double click

"Where's the double click button?" Yeah?

I live with my grandmother. at one time when she was a little more sane my uncle got her WebTV and she was able to use it a little bit and she sent us an email or two. now however, she is too senile. I have a computer in the house and every once in a while she'll make a comment to the effect of, "I don't know what you do at that thing all day" or "I don't know anything about those things, and I don't want to!"

my other uncle is a computer instructor at a college, so it's funny when he visits and talks about them and she doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

My Gramma is under the impression that the 'net is comprised of a whole bunch of dirty filthy porn. I think she says a prayer for my soul every night.

The other funny thing she says sometimes usually references job searching with Monster or whatever, and she'll be like "SO WHERE DO YOU TAP IN TO GET THE MONSTER TO FIND YOU A JOB?" It's pretty funny.