I Taught My Mother To Use IM

[lxskllr]

Am I going to regret that? :^D

 

[rivan]

I'm a little surprised you don't already regret it.

 

[KidNiki1]

i wish my mom was more technically inclined so i could get her to start texting. i'm just happy she uses e-mail more than she used to.

guess it depends how much you like dealing with your mom.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm a little surprised you don't already regret it.

My mother doesn't really like the computer much, so I'm hoping that restricts use. There's been a few times having IM would be convenient on my part for support purposes, so I'm hoping the benefit outweighs the detriment.

 

[blackdogdeek]

IM or text? IM is no big deal if you aren't in front of your IM client constantly. If you meant text, then I guarantee you will regret it before you even finish reading my post.

 

[lxskllr]

IM or text? IM is no big deal if you aren't in front of your IM client constantly. If you meant text, then I guarantee you will regret it before you even finish reading my post.

No, IM. The danger is the instant gratification for her as opposed to email, and I'm on my computer a good bit, so it could get annoying if it's abused. My mother has a stick phone, so there's a built in disincentive to texting.

 

[Kadarin]

She will expect you to answer right away, all the time. Yeah, you'll regret it.

 

[Kaido]

Am I going to regret that? :^D

Technology is a funny thing. My grandma turns 90 this year and regularly Skypes with us to see the grandkids on video chat and prints out pictures of them on her color inkjet photo printer. Plus uses Netflix on her flatscreen TV. And uses a Roomba like a boss.

It's a different world :thumbsup:

 

[lxskllr]

Technology is a funny thing. My grandma turns 90 this year and regularly Skypes with us to see the grandkids on video chat and prints out pictures of them on her color inkjet photo printer. Plus uses Netflix on her flatscreen TV. And uses a Roomba like a boss.

It's a different world :thumbsup:

My mother is barely capable of turning the computer on. It's frustrating as hell. I had to remote into her machine to get her sorted on facebook. She was in the wrong account(why two?!), so I had to get her back to her correct one. I remember her passwords, and try to set everything up so it happens automagically.

When she was using Vista, she would somehow close the toolbar on Thunderbird, and then not be able to use email. I don't how that's even possible without explicitly turning it off. Maybe there's a keyboard shortcut that does it... That hasn't happened since I switched her to Ubuntu. Don't know what the difference is, but I'll take anything I can get :^D

 

[Wyndru]

I put my Mom on gtalk (actually hangouts) 2 weeks ago, and she only has sent me 1 message so far asking me how she will know when I'm on.

She texts me all the time though.

 

[zCypher]

While I would definitely not describe my parents as tech savvy, thankfully they are functional enough to require relatively minimal help from me! I have TeamViewer installed for the odd time that I can take a peek without passing by. I do all the upgrades and initial setting up of OS, but that does not happen very often. We text/email too, has never been a problem for me.

 

[busydude]

asl

 

[RossMAN]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcN08Tg3PWw

 

[CZroe]

My mother refused to use anything but phone calls and voicemail and refuses to ever wait until we see each other to say something. Most of the voicemails and calls are ridiculous, as if I am somehow expected to hear it and respond in real time and they are often the kind of thing that should wait until she sees me anyway, so that's probably a good thing.

But then I showed her Words with Friends on her hand-me-down iPhone 3GS and now I often get bombarded with in-game messages along with calls and voicemail. ARGH! She still doesn't even know the difference between messages and mail on her phone (SMS/MMS and Email) and routinely just asks me to send things for her "whichever way doesn't cost money," but I guess I need to sit down and make her learn it now.