Mom's senior moment
While my kids and I are of the digital generation, my mother falls on the opposite side of the scale. She views my father's Compaq with a mix of fear and disdain; in fact, watching her, you'd think she's afraid it will bite. And writing e-mail? A tremendous effort that she'll only consider under the most dire of circumstances, awkwardly hunt-and-pecking out what she has to say.
It's not that Mom lacks a compelling motive to go online. After all, three of her five children volley e-mail back and forth non-stop, and we live too far away from her for her to interact with us much otherwise. But according to research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, she's typical. While about three-quarters of people aged 51-59 go online, only a third or so of Americans aged 65+ have ventured into the online world. It seems that they share my Mom's wariness. "If she really wants to e-mail someone, she'll have Dad do it," my sister notes.
Oh, and then there's that other technology breakthrough which seems to have met her needs far better. A few years ago, Mom signed up for cell service "just for emergencies," and seldom touched the handset. But now she carries her cell at all times, and if you want to reach her, calling her cell is by far the best way to do it. I guess the combination of convenience and familiarity (she has used a telephone her entire life) provided a much stronger attraction.
Now, I could attempt to reason with Mom. I've explained at length the ways in the Internet can add to your life in ways that cellular (all right, perhaps PCS if you want to get technical) service can't. But it's just not something she can absorb. After 64 years as a non-networked person, it's completely out of her frame of reference...something she can't imagine using successfully, or for that matter, wanting to do so. And I guess that's something I'll have to accept. But let's face it: every now and then my inner Internet evangelist will rise up and share the joys of connected life, and I guess that's something she'll have to accept, too.
It's not that Mom lacks a compelling motive to go online. After all, three of her five children volley e-mail back and forth non-stop, and we live too far away from her for her to interact with us much otherwise. But according to research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, she's typical. While about three-quarters of people aged 51-59 go online, only a third or so of Americans aged 65+ have ventured into the online world. It seems that they share my Mom's wariness. "If she really wants to e-mail someone, she'll have Dad do it," my sister notes.
Oh, and then there's that other technology breakthrough which seems to have met her needs far better. A few years ago, Mom signed up for cell service "just for emergencies," and seldom touched the handset. But now she carries her cell at all times, and if you want to reach her, calling her cell is by far the best way to do it. I guess the combination of convenience and familiarity (she has used a telephone her entire life) provided a much stronger attraction.
Now, I could attempt to reason with Mom. I've explained at length the ways in the Internet can add to your life in ways that cellular (all right, perhaps PCS if you want to get technical) service can't. But it's just not something she can absorb. After 64 years as a non-networked person, it's completely out of her frame of reference...something she can't imagine using successfully, or for that matter, wanting to do so. And I guess that's something I'll have to accept. But let's face it: every now and then my inner Internet evangelist will rise up and share the joys of connected life, and I guess that's something she'll have to accept, too.
posted by Anne Zieger at 10:15 AM
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