The other day, my mom IMed me at work and we had the following conversation:
“how do i add a text message number to my buddy list?”
“A what?”
“I WANT TO SEND A TEXT TO ESTHER FROM MY BUDDY LIST!!!1”
“Mom, turn your caps off.”
“HOW????”
“The caps key is on the left side of the keyboard.”
“ok. how do i txt from my aol?”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“u r lying.”
“Gotta get back to work, Mom! Sorry!”
“fine. i’ll just sit alone in the dark.”
These are the conversations that happen more often than not with my mother. She is not exactly someone I would call technologically savvy. It took me almost two years to teach her how to cut and paste, and she still gets confused about it. It seems as though she saves up every little thing pertaining to her buddy list or Facebook or cell phone and waits until the two times a year I come home to ask for help. It’s fine, because they’re usually things I can do in a few minutes, like create a new photo album or add friends to her buddy list, but when she asks me to show her how, I become agitated. I don’t want to do it, because I know she will be calling me in three days, when I leave home, to ask me how to do it again.
At this point, I forget whether the saying is actually, “You can teach a dog new tricks,” or “You can’t teach a dog new tricks,” but you definitely cannot teach your mother how to navigate Facebook. You can, however, teach your mother to text message.
Sure, it may take a year. But the rewards are huge! Instead of getting ten 30-second phone calls a day, she will begin sending you photos of your dying dog, her new garden, or to show you that your old bedroom has now been transformed into a closet for her shoes. There will be O’s instead of zeros because she won’t know how to find the number on the keypad, but the message will go to your pocket and you can check it later.
I highly suggest it. Keep her away from Facebook, though
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