5 Biggest Mistakes Elders have made with Tech

[AlphaGamer46]

We've all got older parents/grandparents, right?

 

If yours are like mine, they'll definitely need some help with using a computer or even a phone.

 

Here's 5 mistakes my grandparents have made.

 

5. Accidentally sending the wrong thing to someone on a mobile phone.

Here's actually a funny story. My grandma was planning a reunion of some form for her school group and needed to send someone a text message. After my dad spending a while teaching her how to open the text messaging app and start a new conversation, my grandma just sends 'Ho' to this woman. It would definitely shock me if I got a text message that just said that!

 

4. Buying a computer that has too much power for their needs, meaning it's expensive.

Okay, so my nan had an Acer Aspire Windows XP laptop. You can understand she wanted to upgrade. It had like 1GB RAM and a Celeron processor. So my dad and I spent hours on electronics retailer's sites working out which laptop would be a good fit for her. After a while, we went into a store and started talking to a salesman. Now, all my nan does on her computer is web browsing, email and Word. She didn't need this computer. It had 8GB RAM and a 1TB HDD, keeping in mind that my nan has like less than 5GB of files in total.

 

3. Giving a computer-illiterate person a mobile phone.

Okay, so my grandma had been harping on about getting a mobile phone. My dad, doing the right thing, bought her a $2 Virgin SIM and gave her one of his old phones. These are brick phones so you can understand where I come from. After her complaining she couldn't type properly on it, my dad went and bought her one of those cheap $50 phones locked to a network. It was just something that she could use for emergencies and texting. After using it for a while, she was saying that maybe she should switch back to the old phone. You can understand how frustrating this was.

 

2. Leaving the phone off the hook.

Most people get worried when their parents/grandparents don't answer the phone. In this case it was for the stupidest reason; they had left the phone off the hook. They have a Telstra-provided handset (yes, I live in Australia and yes, my grandparents are with Telstra) and it works fine. They have a wireless handset so they can talk away from the actual phone but this was funny. My mum was getting a bit worried that they weren't answering their phone but it was after we gave them a mobile phone so my mum was able to correct the issue.

 

1. Buying the same brand of a product that didn't work.

This one frustrated my dad the most. So my nan used a HP printer and it was definitely acting its age. It started to be stupid and sometimes wouldn't print so my dad told my nan that she will need a new printer. We didn't see her for like a month and then, out of the blue, we go over to her house and she starts saying that she bought a new printer. After my dad asked my nan what printer she bought, she replied with 'I bought a HP'. This frustrated my dad so much. 

 

That's 5 mistakes my grandparents have made, let me know what your's have made.

 

Oh and one more, my nan got a virus from clicking in an email. Saved the stupidest till last

[Amazingasian]

Basically this:  

"CLICK HERE FOR A FREE IPAD AIR 2"

 

And then wondering why there's cryptolocker on their computer.

[Juanse]

Well, I do get the "videogames cause the violence" thing a bit. Also, not ending a call, not locking the phone before putting it back in the pocket

[Tech_Dreamer]

Don't forget the " Download More Ram "

[Suika]

I sell electronics to old people. It's not the lack of understanding of electronics, it's the lack of common sense the majority of time.

 

"I think somebody hacked my facebook, can you help me reset my password?"
"Sure, and you can also have Facebook log out all of the connected devices to kick out unwanted users if you would like to."

"No thank you, I don't want to have to log back in."

"Don't come back for help."

[Godlygamer23]

15 minutes ago, Suika said:

I sell electronics to old people. It's not the lack of understanding of electronics, it's the lack of common sense the majority of time.

 

"I think somebody hacked my facebook, can you help me reset my password?"
"Sure, and you can also have Facebook log out all of the connected devices to kick out unwanted users if you would like to."

"No thank you, I don't want to have to log back in."

"Don't come back for help."

I hope they know that resetting the password might kick out all of their other devices.

[Kobathor]

7 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I hope they know that resetting the password might kick out all of their other devices.

will kick them out, last I checked.

Some people are just so stupid it hurts me.

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, Kobathor said:

will kick them out, last I checked.

Some people are just so stupid it hurts me.

I'm not 100% sure. The behavior might be different on phones.

 

I tested it just now. When you change your password, you have the option to sign out of your other devices, but you can choose to leave them signed in.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Godlygamer23

[Fgtfv567]

I'm surprised that Godly hasn't merged this with Experience with non-techies yet. Only elder I have contact with is my grandma. Doesn't use tech besides her TV and a DVD player. She gets around those just fine