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30 Examples Of “Teaching Your Grandparents To Use The Internet” From Previous Generations
If you are of a certain age, then you will be familiar with the experience of returning home, perhaps for the holidays, and immediately being forced into becoming the family IT person. There are always new devices to set up, routers to set up and strange questions about the internet to try and answer. However, the truth is that you are by no means the first to have this sort of trial at home.
Someone asked “Older people, what was the equivalent of teaching your grandparents to use the internet, when you were growing up?” and netizens gave their best answers. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the best examples and be sure to add your own thoughts to the comments below.
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#1
I think the transition is that I (sixtyish) have noticed is that I expect technology to change. I expect an iPhone with new features. I am bummed about the lack of jetpacks, but otherwise technology keeps delivering wonder. But without a manual so you have to figure each device out.
My parents didn't expect the changes. They had trouble adapting. The pace of change has accelerated. Three of my grandparents were born before the first airplane flight and three of them watched men walk on the moon. I see a new car feature and b***h about its imperfections.
Dusty's mom 16 hours ago
That is a very astute observation. I'm also around your age, and what you wrote hit me between the eyes. Wow! So true!
RELATED:
#2
My great-grandmother was born in 1900. She was in her late 90s when this happened. One day while visiting her in the nursing home, my mom asked me to call home to remind my dad to put dinner in the oven. My great-grandmother saw me use my brick of a cellphone and wanted to know what it was. I explained and her face just lit up.
"So you could be grocery shopping and call home to ask your husband what he wants for dinner?" she asked. She thought this was just fantastic. Then she asked if she could try. She called my great-aunt, her daughter, on my cell and regaled her about the marvels of modern technology. It was so cute.
Great-grandma was a month away from her 102nd birthday when she died. She lived long enough to cuddle my son, her first great-great-grandchild. She was a cool lady. I miss her.
#3
One of us left a GameBoy at my grandmas house and she started playing on it. She loved it. We all chipped in and got her one and eventually she would hide it when the kids came over so no one would mess with her score. Miss you nanny
#4
LOL. When my mother passed away in June 2018 I realised my dad had no idea how to use his debit cards because my mother handled everything like that.
We had to go to an ATM to actually practice taking cash out, and then go into a shop to practice using the card to pay for things. He was totally blown away and after using contactless to pay for some newspapers exclaimed: "my god! It's soooo easy!!" The shopkeeper could barely conceal her laugh.
#5
My lovely grandma used her microwave for one thing only... heating water. It was adorable.
She also only used email once. Her message to me... "Your dad made me do this. I'll never be the same again. Love, Grandma."
Featherytoad 3 hours ago
That's pretty much me with the microwave. Water and the occasional frozen dinner and thawing chili. It's just a big expensive clock/timer.
#6
My grandma was born in 1925. She once told me that her 4th grade teacher told the class that in the future you'd be able to talk to a person across long distances while seeing them at the same time! My grandma vividly remembers thinking that it was the dumbest thing she'd ever heard.
We speak through FaceTime regularly now.
#7
I had to teach my grandparents how to use their first answering machine. They tried to record their “nobody is home” message and we got a recording of them arguing over what button to push to record. Very funny and cute. “I think this is the button? I already pushed it Mary! Now what do you do! Damn contraption!”
#8
Family legend has it that my farmer grandad (still with us, in his 90s now) tried to stop his first tractor by shouting 'whoa!' at it, like he would with his draft horse. The tractor, obviously, ignored him entirely, and grandad and the machine ended up in the canal.
M O'Connell 8 hours ago
There was a very short period of time in the early 20th century when rein-operated tractors existed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXXa03wf52k
#9
My grandmother - born 1888 - never learned to drive and always referred to my grandfather's car as "the machine".
Geoffrey Scott 9 hours ago
She must have been very forward thinking, not the 'infernal machine' just the machine.
#10
I only had maternal grandparents and my grandfather died in 92 when I was 14. I don't remember teaching him anything but I do remember stealing his unfiltered Pall-Malls. My grandmother lived until 2006. She never drove until he died. Never needed to. So at the ripe old age of 14 she threw my a*s in her little Ford and told me to teach her to drive. Apparently it didnt matter I was only 14 and legally not old enough to drive myself let alone teach someone else. We both learned to drive that day. I will never forget it.
#11
A little off topic,
My high school got computers my senior year. Admin hunted for a teacher who had a free period so they could teach computer class. One of my favorite school memories is the football coach standing at the front of the room offering extra credit to whoever could figure out how to turn the computer on.
Dusty's mom 17 hours ago
The year I graduated from college, we had a guest speaker raving about how the world would change with computers. My family and friends called hand-held calculators "computers". I thought he was full of hot air and worked on a lesson the whole presentation. The following year the college got its first computers. I was such an idiot.
#12
Convincing a grandparent that he was not going to be able to replace his manual shift car with a newer car that was going to have the shift lever on the steering column like he was used to.
**EDIT:** Some of the comments indicate people are confused, I am not talking about the AUTOMATIC transmission lever on the steering column. That was there because the manual shift was on the column before automatic transmissions were a thing. Standard H-pattern MANUAL stick shift but located on the steering column, not on the floor. You need to step on the CLUTCH with your left foot to shift the gears. It was called "three on the tree".
Still confused: [Column shift '55 Ford](https://youtu.be/La1dkKcVyc0)
#13
This reminded me that my Grandma who was in her nineties and had email, thought that the email was “delivered” to her inbox by people. My mom would tell her she sent her something and my Grandma would say “Well, they probably haven’t delivered it yet” when most likely it was in spam. So cute, I miss her. She’s also the one that told me in her 80’s that she still feels the same as she did when she was 18. She meant in her head, not physically. She’s right, you do feel the same.
Senjo Krane 15 hours ago
That's the sucky thing about getting old. Your mind thinks you're young but your body proves you wrong. Every. damn. day.
#14
A record player. They have 3 speeds, 33 rpm for LPs, 45 rpm for singles and 78 rpm for the old timey records.
My grandparents had theirs set to 33. I was messing around with it and left it at 45. They called my parents ranting that I broken it. I told them how to fix by just moving the control that highly visible at the front.
The next time I visited they accused me again of breaking it. I had to change the setting and was told never to touch it again. The irony was completely lost on them.
#15
First born American here. I had to teach my mother English as I was going to elementary school and learning it myself. She failed keeping her end of the bargain and never taught me Spanish.
#16
When my great grandmother first had electricity in installed in her house, she was given an electric clothes iron. After ironing, she would insist on leaving it plugged in and placed on a high shelf “so the leftover electricity would drain back out”.
Apparently it took a long time to convince her that electricity did not work like water.
#17
Here's a really old one ... my dad, who would be 102 if he were still alive, grew up on a farm. When his dad got their first tractor he couldn't figure out the manual shifter so he would make my dad sit on his knee and shift gears for him while he drove.
RajunCajun 2 hours ago
that might just have been an excuse to spend time with his son and still sound manly.
#18
Taping the bit of cardboard over the remote so that only the power, channel, and volume buttons are showing.
#19
When I was around 12 my parents got my grandparents a cassette player. This was not new technology by any means, but my Nana and Grandad had only ever listened to the radio or records, so it was new to THEM. My parents gave them some tapes to listen to (I think I may even have made them a mix tape of some of their old favourites), but when they first plugged the cassette player in my grandparents just turned it on, pressed 'play' (with no tape inside) and watched the little wheels turn. It was like magic to them, they were so delighted by the whole thing.
Tempest 14 hours ago (edited)
I can understand their fascination! Being a gen-z person cassettes were pretty much becoming archaic when I was a kid. My parents had one of those massive cassette players (a standalone inside a glass box that’s as tall as a person) and while they did teach us to use it, what we enjoyed the most was putting in cassettes to watch them turn inside and then taking them out to rewind (?) them manually. There were so many cassettes laying around so plenty to mess around with! Think we ruined some of their valued cassettes by doing so!
#20
My mom, a genealogist, was 50 when she got her first computer. I was her tech support for the next 32 years, most of it was remote. Trying to explain how to use email was sheer t*****e (‘but who picks up all these messages and delivers them?’). My brother bought her a cell phone but didn’t bother to program it for her so she mailed it to me to ‘fix it’. Eventually I printed, laminated and taped her password and all the phone numbers to the back of her phone. We mailed that phone back and forth for a month before she felt comfortable using it. God I miss her.
BookFanatic 6 hours ago
My mom pitched a fit when Comcast changed the style of their remote. She scheduled a tech to come over to explain what all those buttons meant. God love her, but man was she a menace with new technology.
#21
I'm 27 but my mom's favorite story about technology from her time was trying to introduce her grandmother to TVs.
She had refused to buy one since the day they came out because she didn't understand them and it scared her. When she got too old to live on her own, she had to move in with her daughter and granddaughters (my grandparents and mom/aunt's house) and it was the 1970s so they obviously had TVs.
She was basically immobile and sat in her favorite chair all day in a slip/nightgown kind of dress. They had to turn her chair around if they wanted to watch TV and she wasn't decent for company because she was 100% convinced that the people could see her. She thought that like, as they were watching the Brady Bunch on TV, they were doing the same thing but watching my mom's family. She was Irish catholic so modesty was a huge deal for her and she'd complain the whole time the TV was on about how uncouth it is for the young men and husbands in these TV shows to be watching ladies wearing bed clothes in their own homes. The only way she would watch TV with everyone was if someone helped her into a sunday dress and did her hair and makeup. And then she'd sit there poised in the chair like she was on a talk show smiling and occasionally waving at the people on TV.
*edit because a lot of people are getting confused, this was my great grandmother who was born in 1896 and this took place in the 1970s when she was in her 80s. It did not happen recently so you can stop calling my great grandmother dumb for not understanding how a TV works.
Geoffrey Scott 9 hours ago
Laugh if you will, but who says satellite boxes only receive? I did not change what I did in my life, but.. We got tired of $90/mo bills and are OTA now, don't miss it.
#22
According to my Nan, it was teaching my great-great-grandmother how to use a toaster that you don't need to turn the bread in
#23
My dad tried to turn my CDs over like records in the early 90s.
RajunCajun 2 hours ago
to be fare, laser disks did need to be turned over, and my Dad was hot stuff when he got one that could play both sides and not need to be flipped.
#24
My father (born 1922) told me his grandfather refused to believe in radios, he figured someone was pulling his leg.
#25
God Damn Credit Cards... My Grandad was a very clever man, god rest his soul. Was in the RAF during the war, flew in Lancasters. I hold him in such high regard. A legend. But the concept of what a Credit Card actually was... he had no clue. Completely lost on him. 10's of thousands of pounds debt. He kept receiving letters through the post saying he was "eligible" for X amount of money, so he signed up and spent it. He genuinely thought it was free money. I can remember the look of helplessness on my dad's face once he realised what had happened to the old man. Even when trying to explain how credit cards work, the old man just didn't get it. This all happend back in the 90's. I feel guilty for taking those £5 notes he slipped me to spend on sweets. But I am also pissed at my parents and Aunties & Uncles for not realising sooner. A bitter lesson I learned at a young age. I now personally keep an eye on my family and friends and make sure they are living within their means. I would hate for someone close to me to go through that. Utter BS.
#26
Microwaves. My dad bought my grandparents a microwave. First day grandpa puts a metal pot in it with tin foil on top and it fried it. Day 2 microwave 2, grandma puts her socks in to warm them up. Socks got burnt because she set it for 10 minutes, day 3 microwave 2, we gave them a lecture of how to use microwaves and how they work, grandma puts a sealed Tupperware in and it melts then explodes. Coating the inside with plastic and food. Total loss. Day 4 microwave 3, they say thank you and we appreciate it but it is too complicated for us. We kept the mic for ourselves and got them a new tv instead. They still got up to change the channel. The remote was too complicated for them.
#27
Just using a regular computer before the internet existed..
okay dad, to get into the part where you use your mouse you type win from this dos prompt
THAT'S TOO HARD!
so I put win in the autoexec.bat file, I was also 9 years old.
poor guy, still to this day I had to rename his chrome icon to USE THIS FOR INTERNET
#28
I saved up and bought my parents the first Sharp Carousel Microwave oven.
...
It sat there, on the kitchen counter, for months, untouched. My mother was so scared of it that she threw the equivalent of a tantrum. She would never walk in front of it, even when off and would always unplug it.
It wasn't until she gossiped to her friends that "my son got us this dreadful appliance" that they convinced her it was the best thing in the world for reheating food, and that it was harmless with numerous safety features. Several of them said the Sharp model was the best and safest out there! (oh she wouldn't listen to her family of reason, but trust the ladies at the *hair saloon*--no question there!)
From then on, we had leftovers all the time. Or microwave meals. RIP mom, you couldn't cook to save your life, but you could at least make microwave meals in minutes!
edit- typo-it should read "*hair salon*" but ya know what, who cares!
BookFanatic 6 hours ago
Honestly, the idea of a "hair saloon" is making me giggle. Picture old-timey cowpokes bellying up to the bar with pink rollers.
#30
Teaching my parents how to hook up the Atari to the TV. My dad could hook up a VCR and use it, my mom couldn't, but neither could do the Atari. Plus, I was also small enough to fit behind the TV without them needing move anything...wait....
Note: this post originally had 60 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
What do you think ?
Little Bit 15 hours ago
My dad was hopeless with technology. He could manage the VCR and always drove the most basic of cars. I just don't think it interested him. He was, however, a carpenter and could make beautiful things with wood. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.
Little Bit 15 hours ago
Slightly off topic but my mum was born in the 1940s before washing machines were co commonplace in homes. To do the washing by hand involved dolly tubs, poshers, mangles and many buckets of hot water. Fast forward to the 1980s when most people had automatic washing machines. Not my mum. She had this godawful thing called a twin tub which was basically an electronic version of the old dolly tub etc. It took up most of the kitchen, it was noisy and it didn't save any time at all because she was constantly having to put each individual item of clothing into the tub, then the spinner, then something else. I kept well out of her way on washing day because she was always in a bad mood and complaining about how it took all day. I tried to persuade her many times to get an automatic machine but she insisted that her way was the right and only way to do it. She finally got one in 1996 and then she raved about how fantastic it was and how it saved her so much time and energy.
Little Bit 15 hours ago
My dad was hopeless with technology. He could manage the VCR and always drove the most basic of cars. I just don't think it interested him. He was, however, a carpenter and could make beautiful things with wood. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.
Little Bit 15 hours ago
Slightly off topic but my mum was born in the 1940s before washing machines were co commonplace in homes. To do the washing by hand involved dolly tubs, poshers, mangles and many buckets of hot water. Fast forward to the 1980s when most people had automatic washing machines. Not my mum. She had this godawful thing called a twin tub which was basically an electronic version of the old dolly tub etc. It took up most of the kitchen, it was noisy and it didn't save any time at all because she was constantly having to put each individual item of clothing into the tub, then the spinner, then something else. I kept well out of her way on washing day because she was always in a bad mood and complaining about how it took all day. I tried to persuade her many times to get an automatic machine but she insisted that her way was the right and only way to do it. She finally got one in 1996 and then she raved about how fantastic it was and how it saved her so much time and energy.
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