There is nothing more frustrating than trying to explain the current technology to the previous generation. It’s only a small price we must pay for being clothed and fed for eighteen years. Their knowledge leaves you wondering “how did was I raised by these people.
Here is a list of 35 who survived the brutal task of explaining technology to their parents.
1. New Phone
My Dad picked up his own TV remote control off his coffee table and asked me if it was my new phone.
sirreally
2. Torn Apart
My parents are usually good with technology. For some reason, I was using my mom’s computer. I’d turned the monitor off before I left as opposed to letting it go to sleep for some reason or another.
Anyway, came back home, and my parents had the whole thing ripped apart. They didn’t think to try the power button on the monitor.
Of course, I tend to be the same way. Computer not starting up? First thought is the power supply is dead, instead of checking the power cord.
Cogeno
3. No English
My mom doesn’t know English very well so when my phone goes to voice mail she thinks I’ve picked up and says,”Hello… helloo….. heellloooo, arsyy hellloo. I heard you say something earlier so I know you’re there.”
arsyy
4. Can’t Go Back
My mom can get on the internet for hours at a time, but when she’s done, she backs out of it – clicks to go back one page, over and over, until she’s back at her Yahoo mail start page. I’ve told her she doesn’t have to do that but she insists on it.
playblu
5. Letting The Internet Out
My mother wouldn’t let up open the windows when using the computer after they got a wireless modem because it was “letting all the internet out”.
Cajass
6. Back From The Dead
My parents were on a road trip going from Texas to Canada listening to an audiobook on a CD. After about 14 hours, my mom got embarrassed and confessed to my dad that she had no idea what was going on in the book, since some characters had seemingly come back from the dead without explanation. My dad, also embarrassed, had been unwilling to admit he had no idea what was going on either. They arrived at the hotel and went to sleep.
The next day, they discovered the CD player was on shuffle, and had been listening to the chapters out of order.
hzsfre
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7. Searching For The Search Engine
My Mother searches “Google” on bing to get to Googles home page so she can search for something.
betterwithmusic
8. The Text Box
When my dad tries to use the computer he always complains that it won’t type.
“You need to click in the text box, Dad.”
JerkSlut
9. Sign Here
Helping my mom fill out a form on the computer. She nearly gave her signature with an actual pen. I intervened.
Bisphosphate
10. Out Of Paint
My grandmother got a laptop and later called me, wondering when the color in Word and MS Paint would run out.
Godisman
11. It’s Getting Hot
My mother only uses the computer 10 minutes at a time because she thinks if it is on any longer it will catch a virus/overheat.
foulBachelorRedditor
12. Blinded By The Light
My 59 year old mom tried to take a picture on my iPhone by placing her eye directly over the lens on the back of the phone (like an old school camera). She was blinded momentarily.
street_fighting_man
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13. Turn It On
My mom once bought my dad a smartphone. He turned it off by accident, and didn’t know how to turn it back on. He then threw a huge fit, and yelled at my mom, telling him that the stupid thing broke on him already. My mom then scolded my dad repeatedly for breaking it within the first day of getting it. During there argument, I walked over, held down the power button, and turned it on… they traded it in within the next week.
BHMtheMAN
14. I Can’t See You
It took weeks to explain to my parents that if you used Facebook, MSN, or any other form of online communication, the entire internet could not see what you were writing. That you were semi-privately contacting your friends, who you had consciously added, not shouting into the void. A random Paedophile could not just drop in on your conversation.
My mum to this day thinks that the “favourites” list on her browser (Internet Explorer, too…) is everyone’s favourites list. Every couple of weeks we have a conversation along the lines of “I saw this really interesting website, so I put it on favourites, you should look at it!” and I have to explain that I am not on her computer and as such have no way of knowing what she’s talking about.
Ahhotep
15. Safe Keeping
I helped my mom purchase a new computer monitor. I suggested she give her old one to Goodwill. She said “oh, I don’t know, what if some identity thief gets ahold of it”. I tried to explain that her monitor doesn’t store any data. I think she is still dubious, the old monitor still sits in her computer room.
magicmuds
16. Flip It
My friends father didn’t know that cassette tapes have music on both sides of the tape. His mind was blown when he found out the music he listened to was only half the music he owned.
troymckin
17. Signed, Sealed, Delivered
My uncle recently created a Facebook account. Every comment he makes on somebody writing on his wall he ends with his name, phone number and complete address like he’s writing a letter.
matt90o
18. Attaching A File
It once took me 45 minutes to explain to my mom and her friend how to attach a file in an email. They didn’t have an email account so I had to make one for them, speak in login instructions like, click on the red-yellow and green icon on the bottom – the bottom of what – the screen – no ma not the keyboard, the screen – and so on till I actually got them to log in, click on the compose mail tab and reach the attachment upload level. They couldn’t grasp the concept of attaching a file to an email. Finally they gave up and I was told to do it when I got home. Easily one of the most frustrating moments of my life.
Envia
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19. Shake It
My mom started using an iPod touch about a year ago. She has also been trying to get in shape by going for walks or runs in the evening. However, apparently the iPod’s previous owner had left the “shake to switch songs” feature on, and mom didn’t know how to turn it off. Every 20-30 seconds, the motion would cause the song to switch, and rather than ask anyone to change the setting, she ran like this for 6 months until someone noticed.
DBplatypus
21. Plugged In
My mom called me over, said the speakers weren’t working on the computer. I plugged them in.
TristanTheViking
22. Picture This
My mom does not know how save pictures she finds online to her computer so she can post them to Facebook. So she took a picture of her computer screen, plugged in her camera to the computer, made a new file for the picture, uploaded the picture into the file and then posted it to Facebook. When I told her to just right click a picture and hit save to desktop, she told me her way was easier.
lmsalamanca
23. My Favorite
Found a word document on my parents desktop filled with links to various websites, nothing bad, like yahoo, espn, cnn, etc. The name of the file was ‘favorites’.
timothy53
24. Taking Flight
My mom was using the desktop wireless mouse for the first time. I told her to x out of a window and when she slid the mouse it only made it to the middle of the screen since she ran out of mousepad space. So naturally you should pick up the mouse and redo that motion until you reach it, right? WRONG. Her eyes darted from the mouse to the screen to try and figure it out. Her response: lift the mouse off the mouse pad and launch it into the air like an airplane taking flight.
minadaweena
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25. Turn Off the Game
When I was 17, had a screenshot of a funny death in counter strike as my wallpaper. Left the computer open, dad proceeds to ask me if I can get out of my game so he can play solitaire.
OhSweetBalls
26. Virus Free
My mother in law prints out funny email forwards and sends them through the post to us. She won’t forward them on e-mail because she’s scared of the viruses.
[deleted]
27. Smart Phone
Instead of using the address books in their smart phones, my parents tape a piece of paper with all their phone numbers on the back of their phone.
tomlee_77573
28. Send Help
The first time my mom used a search engine, she typed, “Hi, I need some information on (such and such topic) for a friend. Thank you for your help!”
Needless to say, the search engine had not even the vaguest inkling of what the hell my mom was actually searching for.
kokopelli73
29. Cookie Monster
My dad was trying to do something on the internet several years ago when he got a pop up saying “You must have cookies enabled to use this website.” So he got up, went to the kitchen, got some cookies and sat back down. Of course when that didn’t work, he started to yell at the computer. “Why do I need a plate of cookies?! How do they even know if I have cookies?!”
smidget
30. Write Click
I once told my mom to “right-click” while fixing her spelling on a document. She then proceeded to type the word “click”. Couldn’t help but just shake my head. Then I remembered that this is a woman with an iPhone and iPod touch who still buys physical CD’s for her car stereo.
ComptonSir
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31. Change Is Coming
My mom is an avid Facebook user. One day she logged in and her news feed had changed. Her profile had also changed. She began swearing and yelling. I came downstairs and found her crying. She told me that someone had hacked her account and that she didn’t know what to do. I tried to calmly tell her that Facebook had changed their site and the layout. She continued to cry saying that she never authorized them to do this and wanted to know if she could change it back. I told her that the changes were permanent and that they happened to everyone. It took her days to get over this.
wishiwasyou333
32. Class Dismissed
My grandmother and her friend both got their first desktop computers at the same time, so they signed up for a computer course at their local senior center together. It was really basic stuff like “How to use your mouse,” “The start button” and “how to play solitaire” but it was a good intro (now my 80-year-old grandma is on facebook!). Apparently my grandma’s friend was having trouble finding solitaire so I tried to walk her through the steps of clicking the start button…and she said she didn’t have a start button and that “The people at the Apple store showed her how to do some things when she bought her computer but they talked too fast and she forgot everything.”
My grandmothers friend had taken a course on using Windows and didn’t realize the entire time that her computer was completely different, she just thought she really sucked at computers. It was adorable.
DarthTimGunn
33. Burning For You
My mom burned a CD for my grandfather. He took the CD home and put it in his portable dvd player and put a cassette player next to it and recorded everything on the CD onto a cassette so he could listen to it in his car. His car doesn’t have a cassette player.
caes08
34. Too Artsy
When DVDs were just becoming popular, my mom rented that movie The Hours. After about an hour, I go upstairs and she says it’s too artsy and repetitive.
She spent an hour and a half watching the DVD title menu.
beforrester2
35. Look It Up
I found out that until just recently my dad was looking up every underlined word in his e -mails with an actual dictionary he keeps on his desk.