reason #1098342109824 why my father shouldn't have a computer

[mickeym]

I sent an email out to my family members yesterday, letting them know Facebook has changed it's privacy policy/settings, so they could adjust accordingly. I got this email back from dad last night:

Hi Is there a way to DELETE Facebook off the Comp.? If so tell me or I will just stop looking at it as I don't use it anyway.Love Dad

*facepalm*

I took a few deep breaths, said a 'thank you' that I've never been the tech support person who's had to talk him through the myriad of issues he's had, and emailed back that FB isn't actually ON his computer, but on the internet and if he didn't want to use it, just don't go there. Or go there and delete the account, but it wasn't going to be anywhere on his hard drive.

Parents and technology. Gotta love the combination, right?

Comments

[sms-recs.livejournal.com]

ok this....made me laugh so hard. Your dad and my mom would be lost together trying to figure out how to get Facebook off their computers. LOL

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

Oh, my god. It's like a nightmare! Anything to do with the computer! I'm just thankful he actually does call tech support for whatever, more often than he calls me. Otherwise, I might have to take up drinking. O_O

[missyjack.livejournal.com]

LOL! I have a friend - younger than me - who is so non-computer savvy. One day she was at my place and wanted to check her email. I let her know that I used Firefox rather than NetSpace as my browser, so she knew which icon to click. "Does it have Google on it?" she wanted to know.

oh yeah - she's a doctor. *facepalm*

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

"Does it have Google on it?"

O_O

I guess...at least my dad hasn't ever asked that? Oi.

Don't doctors have to be fairly tech-savvy???

[missyjack.livejournal.com]

She probably uses whatever electronic patient management system they have in the hospital, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the internet I suppose.

[vickita.livejournal.com]

Last year, when I went to my gyn for my annual exam, she and the nurse were discussing how they don't know anything about computers. The doc says to the nurse, "Have you ever bought anything online?"

"Nope."

"Me neither."

My doc is probably about the same age as I am; might be a little younger. The nurse was quite a bit younger.

o.O

[azziria.livejournal.com]

My mother once rang me when she was about to redecorate to ask if it was alright if she unplugged the computer power cable from the wall (the comp was shut down at the time).

But at least she has a computer and is online - my MIL regards computers as the Root of All Evil...

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

Computers ARE the Root of All Evil! Didn't you know that?? *g*

At least she asked. I guess...I think...I would rather they ask the silly, obvious questions than not ask. It's hard to clean up the messes over the phone from hundreds of miles away!

[turps33.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of my nanna, who wanted me to send some pictures via email to my uncle, and was astounded that I'd need an actual email address to do so *g*

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

USE THE POWER OF YOUR MIND TO KNOW THESE THINGS, TERRI! *g*

I'm actually still--if you're going to email, you need to know where to send it...*shakes head* Never mind. I've not been to bed yet, so that might make perfect sense to someone not currently falling over with exhaustion.

Or, y'know, not. *g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Just make sure that his privacy settings are set properly (and haven't been reset by Facebook at any point) before he closes the account, else he might be running the risk of his info being googleable forever...

[wendy.livejournal.com]

I think it must be incredibly frustrating and a bit humiliating to not understand how computers work. In today's world, it really almost is a handicap of sorts. I help people all the time at the library who are trying to do job applications and they don't know how to type or understand how to get to a web page. It's really a sad thing, I can't imagine how it feels to actually lack that knowledge, you know? Not good, I'm sure.

[theditor.livejournal.com]

I know how that goes. My mom loves to send e-mail but doesn't really understand how browsers work. I must have shown her half a dozen times how to copy and paste things but she just. doesn't. get it. My dad couldn't care less about the Internet.

[britomart-is.livejournal.com]

Oh man. Remember when I used to work for that old lady? I did a lot of tech stuff for her, and attempting to explain what a browser was did NOT go as easily as I'd expected.