No one has asked, which makes me assume you are all dying to know. So I will tell you. One of Tim's jobs at church is to assist the elderly on the internet. Also known as Family History Consultant.
At what point do people become elderly? At least concerning modern electronic equipment? There comes a point where an otherwise intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable person decides they are not going to touch any new machine without an official hover-er leaning over their shoulder. Although he'll have to write about it himself, I think Tim's secret job title is Official Hover-er, for those who need this kind of support.
My grandfather did not fit into this class of people. In his 70s, he signed up for a class at the university so he could activate a student email account. He and I and a couple of his sons communicated by email all through the 90s, as others in my generation slowly picked it up. My regular emails were then what my blog posts are now -- a way to share with people I loved the funny, stupid, thoughtful things that happened in my life.
But slowly my grandfather became more elderly. His excitement in the internet waned. He went weeks without responding to my mail. And then months. And then his account expired from lack of use. And he didn't really care anymore. Why did this happen? When did this happen? It was so gradual, I can't put my finger on a date. I remember curing my homesickness one summer in New York in 1995 by emailing him and other family and whatever friends would respond (not many in 1995). By the time I was engaged in Michigan in 1999, my grandfather was no longer active on his account. So for my grandfather, enthusiasm waned to apathy as he aged, and he found as his health deteriorated and his wife needed more care, the internet was a hobby he could quickly drop.
My mother, on the other hand, was born elderly. She is one of those people who needs an official hover-er before she will do anything new-fangled. Like read my blog. Or borrow a cell phone. Or reset a watch alarm. Same family. What's the difference? And is there any hope that she will ever change?
No. No almost certainly no. In a year or two, she'll be one of those purple-haired ladies in the family history class, asking the young man with the ponytail how to click that button right there. ("Um, you click it.")
Love you Mom.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
One of the challenges for me is trying to muster up enthusiasm for the "latest" techie thing, as the electronic world moves at a rapid pace--much more rapidly than is elder-humanly reasonable, in my mind. Twitter? Why? FB? Only if I want to see what my kids are doing. Google Docs--can do. Email--can do. Blogs-can do. But there will come a time when I can't-do, but really I think it will be more like don't-care-to.
Don't be so hard on your Mom. She was trailblazer in her own day and in her own right--just on a different playing field. Give her a Mac and see her roll--PCs are difficult for non-techies (getting a Mac allowed my parents more able to do things because it's visually based, but I still get emergency calls to help them. Try being a hover-er 800 miles away!).
Given Microsoft's tendency to overload their programs with non-essential doo-dads, I feel like a blithering idiot when trying to demo something like creating a simple header in the version of Word they're using at my university--too complex, as usual. And I'm reasonably up-to date!
Great post, with lots of great things to think about (and dread).
I can't even really relate personally, but I still loved this post!
I have the same calling as Tim and have had off and on for two decades through tremendous changes. I am gladdened when older members ask for assistance because any attempts to learn something new keeps their minds alive.
Mostly I have been struck by the fact that women in the Church as a group are not computer literate regardless of age. Also I found many of the men resistant to having their wives use "their" computer. It is a serious area of concern in our culture which tends to not celebrate intellectual accomplishments by its women.
The comments about your grandfather were quite poignant. It was so great for him to embrace new technology, quite unusual, in fact. There must have been some physical change that took place. BTW Mike says he was always so proud of Grandfather Bunderson because he always embraced new technology. Mike thinks he would have bought a new computer often.
Tim would have enjoyed assisting him.
Post a Comment