5 Tips to Get Your Parent on the Tech Track

 

About a month ago, my dad decided to step up his cell phone game and buy a smart phone. 

The last eight years or so, my dad has been nurturing the same basic prepaid phone that he's always had. He used his cell phone primarily to screen his calls but rarely answers them. If I called him on it and left a message, it wouldn't be long before he called me back from his house phone. My best guess for the reasoning behind this would be a combination of causes. One, he never carried his cell on him. So when he'd hear it ringing from a distant room in the house, he wouldn't  be able to make it in time to answer. The second reason being that he never figured out how to program any numbers in it, so unless you left a message he had no idea who was trying to give him a buzz. The third reason was that he refused to give in to the technological pressures of today's world. It was one thing for dad to get a cell phone, (I mostly think he did it to hush the voices of cell phone reasoning coming from every direction) it was another to actually use his cell as it was intended.

I was surprised, to say the least, when my dad made the leap and decided to get a smart phone. He had my brother and me over to help him set it up, program some numbers, and show him the basics. All of this seemed like monkey work to us, but by the lost look my dad's face held the entire time, it was obvious the feeling wasn't mutual.

Since then, he's shown multiple frustrations with his new tech accessory. He can't quite figure out how to see his missed calls, or return them for that matter. His texts are always a jumble of letters, scripts of nonsense, and half paragraphs. A couple of minutes after every text comes the phone call expressing his frustrations with the sensitive keyboard and his chubby-dad fingers.

All of his trouble got me to thinking: is the root of our parents’ technological troubles, us? Stay with me here; with all of my dad's struggles in learning how to use his new phone, my brother and I have done the bare minimum to help him understand it. I know that every person my age has had someone ask them for help with a new gadget they bought, and we all deeply dread this request. It's equally as frustrating for us to try to explain how things work as it is for them to muddle through it on their own. My generation is by far the least patient of the generations before us. The last thing we want to do is take a second to slow down, and break down tasks that we fly through daily. 

So to make things easier in the long run for both us and our parents, I’ve decided to pass on some tips that have helped me get my parents on the tech track:

1.      Start small. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the Internet. By starting small (like “here’s how to turn your device on”) or showing them how to toggle, it’ll make their overall learning experience a little easier. When you overwhelm someone while trying to teach them, basic human instinct is to immediately shutdown at the earliest sign of frustration. So in order to avoid that, spend a fair amount of time teaching your parents the basic skills to navigate their new device.

2.      Keep calm and technology on. Like I said before, my generation is most definitely guilty of lacking patience in all areas of life. And playing the teacher role isn’t for everybody, but being able to remain patient and speak to your parent in a calm, cool, and collected fashion will also decrease frustrations for both parties.

3.      Show them one task at a time. It is really easy to get lost when jumping from one task to another. Instead of jumping from texts to taking photos, to using the internet, and then going back to texting, show them the basics of each task, one at a time before moving to the next.

4.      Make them do it on their own. Having your parent send you a text by themselves is the easiest way for them to learn. Have them send words, pictures, and emoticons (if they’re into that). It’s more reassuring for them if they know they can do it before you leave, but still have you in the room just in case something goes awry. Make them get lost in their apps, and navigate their way back home. Once they know they can do the basics without you telling them every step, they’ll be less likely to ring you on the house phone and ask you to walk them through it.

5.      If all else fails, make sure they have an expert understanding on the ins and outs of YouTube. That way, the strangers of the internet can give them at-home tutorials when you’re not around.