Why are old people so hopeless with technology?

[Quadzilla]

OMG at the pair of you. Someone could make that into a comedy tv mini-series.

I reckon ... my first online was a salvation army minister in Qld - I lived in Sa ... Joy said be4 we met in person "Kevin, I'm a minister of religion ... thats like a nun' ... far out none of my catholic teacher nuns did what she did to me! Joy to the world! lol

#2 was into witchcraft - 7 kids - only 1 still home ... sheesh - both lasted nov til feb - broke up after valentine's day!

 

[Spongebob]

I see you dial up modems and raise you 300 baud acoustic couplers.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

21 and younger = kid
22 - 29 = young adult
30 - 39 = “still” young
40 - 45 = sunset of young days
45+ = officially old. go and call talkback radio stations and sit at bus stops with no particular destination in mind.

From then on you are invisible. Shop assistants, young enough to be your children, have no interest in you. Advertisers pitch their wares to the under 40s, not you. Your place in the market is European canal cruises, retirement villages and funeral plans.

On the plus side, people not much younger than you can be kind and call you "dear", offer you a seat, explain things slowly.

After a while you become outspoken, a GOM or GOW, and you just don't care .

 

[Quadzilla]

21 and younger = kid
22 - 29 = young adult
30 - 39 = “still” young
40 - 45 = sunset of young days
45+ = officially old. go and call talkback radio stations and sit at bus stops with no particular destination in mind.

No way ... I had a kid at 44 - changed careers at 50...

Thats bs - maybe 50 years ago it was correct! Did you make this up or read it somewhere?

...Wait I do call talkback radio - didnt do that til 55 thg, not 45 ... haha

I'm 60yo now ... seriously i feel 50

 

[Firestarter]

I was only "still young" in high school. Beyond 25 you're usually wishing for the old days.

 

[perthblue]

No way ... I had a kid at 44 - changed careers at 50...

Thats bs - maybe 50 years ago it was correct! Did you make this up or read it somewhere?

...Wait I do call talkback radio - didnt do that til 55 thg, not 45 ... haha

I'm 60yo now ... seriously i feel 50

it is not an indictment on your character, but yes you are old

I was only "still young" in high school. Beyond 25 you're usually wishing for the old days.

People who ‘feel old’ in their 20s usually only feel that way because they think they have to be mature or have achieved material success

 

[Firestarter]

Guilty. But then I'm called Firestarter...

 

[RelaxMax]

From then on you are invisible. Shop assistants, young enough to be your children, have no interest in you. Advertisers pitch their wares to the under 40s, not you. Your place in the market is European canal cruises, retirement villages and funeral plans.

On the plus side, people not much younger than you can be kind and call you "dear", offer you a seat, explain things slowly.

After a while you become outspoken, a GOM or GOW, and you just don't care .

I'm fully embracing my GOW status

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

No way ... I had a kid at 44 - changed careers at 50...

Thats bs - maybe 50 years ago it was correct! Did you make this up or read it somewhere?

...Wait I do call talkback radio - didnt do that til 55 thg, not 45 ... haha

I'm 60yo now ... seriously i feel 50

 

[SugarShane]

Anyone else find that the older person's inability with technology is often accompanied with a deathly fear that a wrong press/click/push will result in the device "blowing up" or something else silly like that?

It's the unwillingness/fear of just trying things and seeing what happens that puzzles me. I'm approaching 30, but I was never taught how to use a computer or smartphone or anything else. I just tried it and figured it out.

This is a pretty common theme with them. I hear a lot of them saying things like "I didn't want to try it in case I messed everything up."

I was like you, had a computer in our house since I was about 5, or maybe a bit older. Didn't get Windows until a couple years later, but all the learning just came from clicking and hoping, trial and error.

 

[SugarShane]

I think with my parents they watch too much shitty news programs, and are convinced that one wrong click on their laptop or mobile phone will result in all their money being stolen by Romanian hackers, or whoever the latest villain is.

Won't try clicking something in Windows, but if "Microsoft" rings them and asks for $400 to fix their computer they happily fork out.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Im forty.
When I went to school there was no computer.
I was driving before I used a mouse.

I'm 49 1/2, I started high school in Geelong in 1980, in a school with 900+ students in it.

We had one computer. An Apple IIe on a huge trolley with a dot matrix printer connected to it.

 

[Firestarter]

Dot... matrix?

 

[William Wonka]

I'm 49 1/2, I started high school in Geelong in 1980, in a school with 900+ students in it.

We had one computer. An Apple IIe on a huge trolley with a dot matrix printer connected to it.

And did you find that 90 seconds a week on a computer useful?

 

[Freofalcon]

And did you find that 90 seconds a week on a computer useful?

Geelong.

Probably still using the same computer.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

And did you find that 90 seconds a week on a computer useful?

The cleaner started at 5:30am, I used to get in just after him and use it for a couple of hours when I wanted to. That only last for a year then I had other interests competing for my time.

 

[sherbrook]

The new tendency people have of using question marks when not asking a question
It is taking over from apostrophe misuse as an annoyance
How and when did this start?

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Geelong.

Probably still using the same computer.

Tried to donate it to SA but they were afraid that the extra load from plugging it in would trip the state out, again.

 

[radiojake]

The things you see on Hindley St on a Saturday night......

this old guy has it worked out

 

[Cold Sober]

I buried my dear old dad with a mobile phone, it's been 3 years and he still hasn't called.

 

[Firestarter]

I buried my dear old dad with a mobile phone, it's been 3 years and he still hasn't called.

Digging the hole must've been hard.

 

[Procrastinator35]

I buried my dear old dad with a mobile phone, it's been 3 years and he still hasn't called.

I dare say you'll know when it's him.....It'll be a trunk-call.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

I dare say you'll know when it's him.....It'll be a trunk-call.

Let's hope it's not Facetime...

Sorry to be irreverent Cold Sober

 

[MrNatural]

My parents (both in their 60s) are somewhat technologically minded.
They both use a computer daily, however when something goes wrong they immediately lose the ability to comprehend what is going on.
Example:
My parents both got iPhones, both on the same Apple ID.
My mum mentions to me about how phone calls and messages directed at her also go to my dads phone.
Me being an IT person and an Apple fan boy, i immediately knew what the issue was.
A setting in the apple devices allows for calls and texts to be answered on other apple devices when on the same WiFi network.
But to my parents it was like some sort of sorcery or a poltergeist.
They also can't fathom the idea of managing passwords...
My dad also types with the "two finger style" and refuses to learn to type properly.

But my dad is incredibly handy.
Can make and fix things far better than me, but he grew up doing a number of different trades, which i didn't