So many things vie for our attention these days. It looks like we hardly have a minute to sit down still. We’ve got soccer games and piano lessons and food shopping and laundry and (ahem) blog posts to write. And we take pictures of everything these full days. Preserving those photos and the memories that go with them tend to sit on the to-do list for long periods of time for many people.
And I’ll let you know why. Here’s what it all comes down to: I need my pictures and recollections. I need that. I am busy, worried, stressed, and overloaded on a fairly regular basis. I can’t take a trip to Hawaii every time I need to relax. But I could sit down and spend 10 minutes looking through my 2008 visit to Hawaii ANY TIME I’D LIKE because I’ve preserved those pictures and memories in a physical book.
Even when she was cleaning the room, she had not been sure if she could clean the big monitor also, so she’d not touch it. The first step to take when you want to really get your grandma online, is never to buy her some type of computer. It will not work, even if you get her the most advance computer you can get.
The first step that you need to take, is to make her interested. You have to get her interested. And this is not as easy as you might think. Getting her interested for certain doesn’t work when you show her the most recent, state of the creative art, 3D games where you can walk around just like in real life. Getting her interested also fails when you show her your e-mail inbox with your 12483 mails in it. And it generally does not work if you show her many funny do-it-yourself videos on YouTube.
You need to show her something that she really needs. You need to show her something that would make her life easier. And that should be something that appears so simple, that she realizes that even she could do it and that it could actually help her in her lifestyle. To begin with you have to bring her into a situation where she forgets that she actually is near the computer taking a look at the screen.
An easy way is of course when you are looking together at your holiday photos. But if she’s the patience for it, it’ll be more interesting to magically show her some information that she wasn’t aware of you could find that in the computer. For example, it might be a good idea to show her some cooking dishes with cakes from grandmother’s time. Or you can show her information about all the various birds or plants in her garden. Or you can show her the special deals from the supermarket around the corner. Just make sure that you prepare perfectly the plain things that you are going to show.
It helps if you understand exactly which websites you are going to show her. And if she looses interest, immediately stop and let her continue steadily to make that hot chocolate for you. Never push, never force her to sit near the computer and never force her to use the mouse. Your only chance is to make her curious.
- Your focus on audience
- Assist with Data Entry
- Set Up & Import Your Lists/Groups
- Achievable Expectations
Remember, you want to show her that using a computer is simple. So ensure that anything you show her LOOKS SIMPLE! Don’t use Google to find something, that is a lot too complicated to comprehend if someone has no experience with computers. Just click to one or two different websites and then stop immediately straight. The main element to teaching your grandma how to use the computer, is that you start very, very slowly. If you are rushing things, it’ll only take you longer to make her feel safe on a computer even.
Getting your grandma to the idea that she actually becomes interested might be considered a long way. But if your grandma is a fearless woman, at some point, a season or more it could take, she will be ready to touch the computer herself. At this true point, it makes no sense to describe her the menu and where to click to begin a program.
The first thing that she needs to learn now could be the way to handle the mouse. Using the mouse is not as easy as it seems. The coordination between your brain, your hand on the smooth table that little pointer on the monitor is an extremely complicated process. When you first keep a mouse, it is not a logic movement to look at the screen, viewing a little arrow fall and rise and at the same time move your hands on a horizontal plane.