A warp speed leap into the digital age

PRIME – September 2014 By Debbie Gardner debbieg@thereminder.com I got a very excited call from my mother mid-way though August – she’d just seen one of the new digital tablet devices for sale on a home shopping channel at a very good price, and was wondering if our son, Evan, might need one of these compact computers for school. I thanked Mom for the heads-up, but turned down the deal. With an iPhone, an iPad, a Nook e-reader and a laptop computer at his disposal at home, I felt Evan already had access to enough digital devices to get his homework done. However she was intrigued, I think, by the device – and perhaps by the way my husband and I often use our smartphones to find information for her while sitting at her kitchen table – and purchased the tablet anyway. When we spoke later that day and she told me she’d ordered the tablet – for herself – I was mildly shocked. My mom has had a desktop computer for many years, tucked away in a corner of my old bedroom. Though she’s taken classes on how to run the device – and we’ve given her several refresher lessons – she’s never really used it much, preferring to ask me, my sister or her grandson to retrieve her email, look up information or print out any forms or documents she might need. It’s been much the same with her flip-style cellphone. My son has set up her ringtone and voicemail, and even added an alarm to it for her. One of us customarily helps her to retrieve any voicemails that are left. This said, the decision to move up to a tablet was a quantum leap into the digital world for her. My mom, I should mention, is in her 80s. When I asked her why she decided to take the digital leap, her answer was simple and practical. She said she thought it would be much easier to have a little device with her at the kitchen table – her favorite place for most daytime activities from TV watching to bill paying – than to have to go into another room every time she wanted to use a computer. We charged up the tablet for her a few days after it arrived and my husband performed some of the basic setup chores – registering her as the user, connecting the device to her wireless router and showing her where the on/off and volume switches were located. Fortunately the operating system on the tablet is similar to the one on my husband’s and my android-based cellphones – something she has watched us use multiple times during the past few years – and she got the hang of sliding the icon to access the homescreen of the device almost immediately. We started her digital orientation with how to access a fun icon – the camera – showing her where the lens was, how to use the tablet to take pictures, pinch the image to expand or contract the amount of things visible on the screen, and how to return to the home screen and shut down after snapping an image. We closed our first tablet lesson with some “homework” – asking Mom to use her new tablet to take some pictures around the yard before our next visit. (We told her that the photos would go into a gallery, which we’s show her how to access them next time.) It was a small step into the digital world, but I’m very proud of my mom for deciding to tackle new technology head on. Change is never easy for any of us – even though I’ve been working on computers since the early 1980s, sometimes I feel hard pressed to keep up with the latest innovations and apps. With a growing teen at home, however, I don’t have too much choice in that regard. Speaking of teens – Evan has already suggested to Grandma that she learn how to use Skype on her tablet so their frequent phone calls can become video chats. I told him one step at a time – we’ll get Grandma into the digital world – at her own pace. Speaking of entering the digital world, I want to thank the readers who entered our PRIME Sleuth contest online this past month. We were thrilled that so many of you chose to visit our website! If you would like to enter our contest online this month, visit www.primeontheweb.com/sleuth and submit your answer there. You’ll find this month’s PRIME Sleuth contest question located on page 7 of this issue. Thanks again to those of you who have made the digital leap!