Tech Savvy Grandma

I'll give my grandmother the benefit of the doubt. She's more WITH technology than most, yet still lacks in some departments.

Let's assess skills compared to a majority of senior citizens I've conversed with (and yes, I've conversed with many):

1. She can turn ON the computer (and OFF for that fact) which I'd say puts her at the 50th percentile right off the bat.

2. She can make Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. She is a landlord, and therefore does use the computer to keep track of her bills and finances. So I mean, if we're pretending she's applying for an entry level position about 10 years ago, when Word and Excel were all you needed as a secretary, I'd say she'd have a semi-decent chance of getting the job. Her only downfalls are that it takes her 10 minutes to type things, and heaven help us if she needs to find an old document or format her current one. That's why I'd take over.

3. She can send an e-mail. She does have an e-mail account which she uses to send messages to her friends and to the members of the local Garden Club, however her downfall with this, according to Wenisa is that it took both of them to type 8 e-mail addresses in because the other day when she wanted to send the link to this blog out to some friends, her "address book mysteriously was empty". Who the HECK knows what happened there... she most likely deleted it.

4. She has a Bluetooth Headset for her Cell Phone. I'm all for going handsfree. No cell phones while driving. (You know what Oprah says, "No Phone Zone") However, Babcia goes ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty, because not only does she wear her blue tooth during her car ride, but she has been known to wear it in CVS Pharmacy whilst shopping, in the mall, while at the football field, etc. IT IS NOT A FASHION ACCESSORY. Now yes, this may be easier to communicate, however you have to understand the level of CRAZY that one might assume if they were to see you talking to yourself because your Bluetooth is of course on the opposite ear. And of course when you call her on her cell phone , it takes a solid minute for her to get "Bluetooth-situated" and I just hear "WAIT A MINUTE...WAIT A MINUTE" until finally 1 minute later when she is all set I finally get a "HELLO? HE..Hee Hello?!?"

This is just not ok. But... Babcia has been known to pull off this look.

Unfortunately...
5. She thinks that you're signed off the internet when you log out of Internet Explorer. When I broke that news to her, she was not only devastated, but SCARED! (she used to have dial-up internet... for YEARS, so it's understandable that she assumes that I guess...) She immediately said "So are you saying that people can steal my information ALL of the time?" I don't know where she gets this from... I think she watches too much Dateline. What does she think they're going to do? Crawl into her computer while she's "logged out of Internet Explorer" and raid her computer of all of her information?

6. She hates texting. She told Wenisa and I to put our fingers away at the dinner table once. She doesn't really understand how we communicate via texting either. I wish she WOULD text though because maybe that would eliminate the 1,000,000 phone calls that come to this house daily. I don't really mind, I just find it funny seeing as less and less people are using house lines and she just seems to use it more and more! More power to her. Saves her a texting plan and her thumbs from wearing out.

Her Opinion
After Wenisa and I installed WiFi in the house, she exclaimed, "I have to tell all my friends how TECH-SAVVY I am!"

Glyburide Giggles,
Justine