Explaining Computers To My Grandmother
My father and I visited my 92 year old grandmother in her nursing home last weekend. She usually has a lot of complaints and shares all of them with my father. But since I was there that day, the mood was different.
My dad is 73, but he’s as computer literate as a 23 year old. He’s a novelist, and he still works from home, constantly surfing the web, e-mailing, and playing Lexulous with me on Facebook.
My grandmother is another matter entirely. I don’t think she’s kept up with all of the technical innovations since the 1950s, so you can forget about her being familiar with personal computers. And trying to show her would be a pointless effort, she’s legally blind.
My dad is very proud of my recent success as a blogger and web designer. Nanny (my grandmother) asked me what I was doing lately. I tried my best to use language she would understand.
“I write for… magazines,” I said.
“Oh, are they weekly or monthly?” she asked.
“New articles are published at least a couple of times a day. There’s always new content.”
That forced me to explain a few things to her.
My father has tried to explain computers to her dozens of times, and every time she seems to understand, but then she completely forgets.
The best explanation we’ve come up with is that they’re like television screens with typewriters. With the Internet (we don’t use that word), they can send messages to each other, like magic!
Dad and I also have a lot of fun explaining smartphones to her.
“Almost everyone these days carries a special telephone,” dad said, “they don’t only work as telephones, but people can send letters to each other, play games, find their way around with the Global Positioning System, and take photographs.”
“A lot of them have tiny typewriters on them, lots of little tiny keys,” I said, “the ones that don’t have magical screens that can feel your fingers typing a pretend typewriter.”
Nanny was absolutely astounded.
When my father e-mails a manuscript for a novel or screenplay to someone, Nanny asks him how long it will take for the other party to receive it.
“Instantly, mum, instantly.”
That must be a difficult concept for her to grasp.
I tried explaining to Nanny how I got my dad to BitTorrent movies and play them on his new flat screen, digital TV.
“You see, Nanny, dad goes to the computer and says, I want a certain movie, The Third Man, for instance. When he receives the movie within half an hour, dad puts it on a little stick, smaller than a cigarette lighter. He then plugs the stick into the television, and he can start the movie playing with the remote control.”
That was so incredible to her.
Then we explain how, just as our magical telephones are devices that do everything, computers can also be used as telephones. My new netbook has a built in webcam with microphone and I can easily use VoIP, as long as I have a WiFi connection. But I daren’t use those terms with her.
Understanding modern computing and networking technology is vital to understanding how dad and I do our jobs. Explaining all of this amazing stuff to Nanny can’t be avoided.
After a relatively pleasant visit, we started to exit the nursing home.
“She’s going to completely forget everything just we said, isn’t she, dad?”
“You can count on it.”
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I see stuff like this all the time. I had to help somone a couple months ago that had never touched a computer. It was the strangest thing showing him how to use a mouse. Let this be a lesson to us in the younger generation that if we don't keep up with the technologies coming out, we'll be just as clueless as most of our grandparents. Let's be sure to keep up.
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