A fascinating article on the BBC Website looks at whether fathers are struggling to keep up with their kids' technological gadgetry. I remember when I was a kid, my dad was well into his stuff; he had a reel-to-reel tape recorder, he enjoyed playing with my Commodore 16 as much as I did and was the first to be able to program our first ever family VCR.
But how things have changed! I love my ol' man! But he's not quite there yet with a modern PC, but he's looking for ways to make the most of his Nokia phone (3310 I think).
Now my uncle, on the other hand, is well into his MP3 stuff and loves to mess about with re-installing Windows and stuff on his PC (though I must admit that this is usually because he has screwed something up and my aunty needs to use it).
What about your folks? Are your parents, guardians or other relatives who are older than you well into your technology or are they like my gran and see them as a waste of time, an indication of moral decay and the cause of ignorant children?
PS. My dad has just gotten used to sending texts from the orange web site and thinks its cool that he gets a Text whenever someone e-mails him. ow cool is that?
My dad has a PC and tinkers with it all the time (he did right back to our first Commodore Vic20 and taught me my first wee bits of programs). My mum has a PC but needs a fair bit of support. She's got the hang of cutting and pasting at long last! My aunt and uncle have a PC and are starting to panic about having to learn how to use it because my cousin's going to be going to America soon to do her last year of school. My granny has one and started going to internet classes, but gave up on it. My parents-in-law have a PC, my father-in-law is adequately competent but would rather play with his Playstation, my mother-in-law uses MS Office at work and thinks she knows how to do things like install a webcam and doesn't.
My sister is travelling the world and deigns to use net cafes to access her Hotmail, but considers that too far a trek into geekdom for her liking!
My father wants to play with electricity,he usually tries ti fix the TV,it has exploded couple of times after his futile fixing atempts.He used to play nintendo with my uncle,now he plays vexed type games on his PC and uses MS Office.My mother works with AutoCad but she hates PC's.
Well I'd like to go back to the simple days when fathers believed that this was the best thing in the world for electricity...
On my Father-in-law, he's of the firm belief that engines always come with spare springs and valves so they break down for no reason. I'm so glad he doesn't do Open Heart Surgery for a living.
My dad is a techno junky.. I think thats where I got it! Computer wise, sinclair ZX-81, then an original IBM PC and things just kept progressing. Today he's 58, comes over every few weeks to play on the Playstation2 and some how manages to kick my arse in Tekken and Soul Calibur 😮ops: .
Do your folks want to adopt? 😃
I could mention my mum who is a PS2-fan,usually playes Final Fantasy and things like that 8) My dad uses PC every day,he's always on the net.Ive a lot to learn from them 😉
I just learned that they now know how to use the power button of my pc, but that's about it 😛