ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

My Mother the Internet Channel - One Senior's Computer Experience

Updated on August 18, 2012

My mother is an Internet channel, a broadband information carrier, a guru of desktop navigability. She has no computer, no laptop, no cell phone. Her only hands-on experiences with these technologies are playing computer solitaire at her local senior citizens center and talking on my cell phone, but only if I dial the number for her. Despite her lack of hands-on experience, she is a great information provider about what's on the web, where to find it, how to find it, and what I should do with it.

As Shocking as Four-letter Words

Recently, my mother called to tell me about a possible funding source for women entrepreneurs who want to start new businesses.

She said, "Go to ‘ww' [not ‘www', mind you] dot xxxyyyyzzzz [I don't recall the company's URL] dot c-o-m [she didn't say ‘com', she spelled it out] and scroll down the page and click the green dollar sign icon. You can apply for money when you get to the next page."

I never heard her talk like that. I was nearly as shocked as if she had told me a dirty joke full of clearly enunciated four-letter words. Scroll? Icon? Page? I was speechless.

"Surprised?" she said.

My mother surprises me often. She is well-read, listens addictively to radio talk shows, watches foreign and domestic news religiously, subscribes to several timely publications, scours the local daily newspapers, and converses avidly with friends and family about politics, current events, and health issues. Her discourse is backed by fact, propelled by tenacity, and delivered with the agility and surprise of the one-two punch. She always has something timely and informative, and usually surprising, to share.

But I didn't know she was learning to speak Computerese.

A Great Source of Free Cartoons

Royalty-Free Cartoons by Grea (Sydney, Australia). High quality royalty-free cartoons which you are free to use as long as you don't alter them without permission.

Uprising at the Senior Center

Not too long thereafter, she called to tell me that no one at the senior center, neither seniors nor office staff, could find the solitaire game icon on any of the desktops. Upgrades were installed the night before, and now the icons were gone. (Yes, she channeled this information to me in perfect Computerese.)

One thing you must never do to seniors is take away their computer solitaire. My mother told me that an uprising was brewing in the computer room. She and her friends were at first perplexed, then frustrated, and now they were on the warpath to get the game restored. Apparently, office staff at the center didn't know how to do this, and the volunteer consultant who installed the upgrades was temporarily unavailable.

I asked her to get pen and paper to write down step-by-step instructions for finding the game and restoring its icon to the desktop.

"Do you know where the ‘Start' button is?" I said.

"Sure." she said. "It's in the status bar. When you left-click it, you get a menu."

Amazing.

It took only 10 minutes for her to write the instructions and read them back to me flawlessly.

That afternoon she brought the instructions to the senior center and handed them to one of the office staff. In a matter of minutes, every PC was fixed, the rebellion was over, and my mother was the heroine of the day.

Just in case you or a senior you know would like to start using computers...

A PC-free Home

With her enquiring mind, adventuresome spirit, and tack-sharp wit, I thought she'd love having her own PC at home to surf the web, join up with the online community, and add to her impressive storehouse of knowledge. Several times in the last few years, I offered to install a new PC and work with her as much as she wanted or needed me to. But there was always an excuse.

The first excuse, before she had cable access, was, "I don't have a phone connection where I want the computer."

"No problem," I said. "I can fix that. Just tell me where you want another jack."

She met my suggestion with icy silence, stood up, started watering the house plants, and changed the subject to junk mail and how much she hates it.

The next excuse, after she had cable installed, was, "My house is already loaded with furniture. I have no place to put a PC stand."

Each time I brought the subject up, I heard another excuse.

Senior Independence

My mother has always been a little different. She learned early on how to make it in the world on her own. She guards her independence like a lioness her fresh kill. I see that her insistence on remaining PC-free while at the same time conversing fluently in Computerese is a clear sign of independence as well as another cherished difference to be added to her repertoire of unique traits.

On a Personal Note...

I would like to thank Blogger Mom for the kick in the butt her excellent hub Technology and the Senior Citizen gave me this morning. In writing my hub, I thought about the challenges Blogger Mom described, and immediately recognized that some of the excuses my mother makes are cover-ups for avoiding the real physical and emotional issues seniors can face when learning and using today's technologies. But, that's my mom! Brilliant, independent, unique, and stubborn. I wouldn't have her any other way.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)