Introducing Dad to Cyber World part 1
Dec. 10th, 2012 12:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spsnTotally non drama related...
We're now living in the tech world where we can find almost anything (not everything, but close) in the www. Our phase of living is also getting faster because well with almost anything is just one click away. What is unthinkable decades ago suddenly becomes what we're doing unconsciously everyday. Easiest example, we check our Facebook everyday (I assume everybody do the same thing LOL), stalking what our friends across the continent are doing in their life. I still remember how happy my mom was to receive the not so regularly letter of correspondence from her high school friend in the US, or my futile efforts in making pen friends from across the world. So different, yet it's not so far back in the past. So, what is it got to do with my dad?
A little bit of background about my dad. He was born during WW2 and has lived most of the years of his life working, working and working. He has no hobbies, well, what do you expect, when you've worked 7 days a week for the past 50 years, you just don't have a time to think of a hobby, that's all. Technology wise? He witnessed the first TV broadcast (black and white), the first TV in color. But that's about it. He never have an encounter with a walk man, or a disc man. His first encounter with an mp3 player aka playing cd filled with mp3 files in his car was in the mid 2000s, prior to that is cassettes and radios. He doesn't have the need to own a CD player at home until casettes become obselete because his music preference stops at 1960s, not even beyond 1970s. His first encounter with a cellphone only a few years ago, and am already so happy that he can call me and sms me with his Nokia basic cellphone.
My dad's adaptation to technology is in deed very slow and his resistance to it is quiate adament especially on things that required lots of steps. That's why our first introduction of www to him couple years ago failed misserably. There are a few reasons to this. We set him a PC with internet at his home. At the time, Internet connection is really bad in a small town in Indonesia. So, we have an elderly with an outdated aka super slow PC with a very bad internet connection. The outcome is obvious, isn't it? The PC became an ornament and the internet plan was cancelled. The second attempt was an equal failure. That's because of 1 thing, Blackberry. My dad was so traumatized with how many steps aka folder he had to memorize to select just to do one thing, let alone connecting to internet. Even I myself had difficulties in using Blackberry. So, that leaves dad with... reading and listening to radio on his spare time for the past few years and his resistance to technology gets worse. He saw my cousins facebooking, tweeting etc, so he knows that the world has gone that advance but he's just not following, and he feels so far away from that world, all the more to fear. www is a scarry world.
The idea of a new trial to introduce dad to the www again came about during the weekly call with my brother. My brother basically just popped up the idea that would it be nice for dad to create memories? Eg. when you walk around in Singapore, you take a picture of what you see or eat, record your thoughts at the spot and then later you can flip through what you've done for, say the past few days. The bothersome thing to do if you have the plain old camera with the film in it, you have to wait for the staff at the photo shop (not photoshop the program) to process the film, print it into a glossy or matte pictures, and even in the small town now, people make the look when you ask them to do so because everything is in jpg file now. My dad agreed, but with lots of cautions aka resistances that he's old already, mind not able to process lots of things etc, which is somewhat true, BUT, my dad is still able to memorize lots of events unconsciously. So both of us, the children, are confident and insist that dad can digest it all if it's done with a ... tablet. An Android tablet should be easy enough for him, provided we set it up correctly for his convinience.
So, that's when we started the project: Introducing dad to www. 3rd time should be a charm, right?
1. Buy a tablet
Which tablet is suitable for him? Dad has to be able to accept the look and feel for him to be able to use it, right? So, off we go to the Best Buy equivalent. First, it's the I-pad. I hate Apple's gadget and this trial confirms why. It's so hard for me to explain things to my dad because we can't go back step by step like Android can (yeah, I'm just don't like everything i-blabla). Next we tried Toshiba's Regza. Tell you the truth, I like and dad also like! But the price? *sobs sobs* A bit of caution here because it's dad's first tablet, so it has to be in mid-range aka durable and friendly enough but not overly pricey in case dad doesn't like. So, we ended up choosing Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. Not too pricey, not too small aka dad still can read the stuff from there, not too heavy, and not China brand.
2. Set up time
We all can live with lots of Apps and widgets on our phones, but not an elderly with limitation in tech knowledge. So, language set up must be in Indonesian, with just a few buttons (as needed basis only). The most important is that as much as possible he just need to click one time to get to the websites that he likes. So, it means some bookmarks and some widgets only on the first screen.
3. Introduction time
Repeatition is gold here. The steps must be turn it on, see the icons, repeadtedly tell him which is what. Dad likes to read newspapers, so I set him up lots of bookmarks on newspapers. Also, taught him how to search as well, so that he can browse. First encounter was awkward because he had difficulties in using the touch screen, but who wouldn't? It happened to all of us. So, slowly but sure, he gets used to it and now ocassionally still cannot click properly, but after 2nd or 3rd try, he managed to do it. By the time you know it, he was engrossed reading his online newspaper! I was so proud watching that.
4. Youtube time
Dad like oldies, so it has to be the KING who introduce him to the world of Youtube. I showed him how to search for Elvis' songs and he was very impressed, like we were all wow-ed with Youtube for the first time. Also shows him how to search for all his fave oldies singers, and for the next few hours, I heard so many different things from the tablet. Me: Yeyyy!!!!
*LJ doesn't allow me to upload my sunshine boy gifs!!!! WHY!!!!!
So, in 2 days, dad has taken a very huge leap of technology and I think he enjoys it. It's a new thing for him, it brings us closer in a way, and he has other things to do during his spare time too, rather than just iddling.
What's next? It has to be gradually and dad need to be accustomed to browsing before I can introduce him to the joy of www.
1. Make dad remember the difference between Wifi and 3G. And why you need 3G when you want to browse around during your 6 hours trip to Jakarta. This includes how to choose your data plan as well.
2. Using Google translation. This is very important because Dad only know Bahasa Indonesia. Google is heaven because you can translate the whole page to the language that you want (even to Sundanese, for goodness sake), so this will be useful and it'll open dad to another new world, the real www.
2. Whatsapp -- more important than Facebook, I want dad to be able to chat with me and bro first. Whatsapp is the same like SMS, with more emoticon and uploading pics is a breeze :).
3. Facebook -- Dad just asked about it. But I think it's not the time now to let him drown in Facebook. Things could be overwhelming.
So, stay tune, who knows, by the time you know it, dad also has an LJ account and also blogging his way away LOL!!!!!
We're now living in the tech world where we can find almost anything (not everything, but close) in the www. Our phase of living is also getting faster because well with almost anything is just one click away. What is unthinkable decades ago suddenly becomes what we're doing unconsciously everyday. Easiest example, we check our Facebook everyday (I assume everybody do the same thing LOL), stalking what our friends across the continent are doing in their life. I still remember how happy my mom was to receive the not so regularly letter of correspondence from her high school friend in the US, or my futile efforts in making pen friends from across the world. So different, yet it's not so far back in the past. So, what is it got to do with my dad?
A little bit of background about my dad. He was born during WW2 and has lived most of the years of his life working, working and working. He has no hobbies, well, what do you expect, when you've worked 7 days a week for the past 50 years, you just don't have a time to think of a hobby, that's all. Technology wise? He witnessed the first TV broadcast (black and white), the first TV in color. But that's about it. He never have an encounter with a walk man, or a disc man. His first encounter with an mp3 player aka playing cd filled with mp3 files in his car was in the mid 2000s, prior to that is cassettes and radios. He doesn't have the need to own a CD player at home until casettes become obselete because his music preference stops at 1960s, not even beyond 1970s. His first encounter with a cellphone only a few years ago, and am already so happy that he can call me and sms me with his Nokia basic cellphone.
My dad's adaptation to technology is in deed very slow and his resistance to it is quiate adament especially on things that required lots of steps. That's why our first introduction of www to him couple years ago failed misserably. There are a few reasons to this. We set him a PC with internet at his home. At the time, Internet connection is really bad in a small town in Indonesia. So, we have an elderly with an outdated aka super slow PC with a very bad internet connection. The outcome is obvious, isn't it? The PC became an ornament and the internet plan was cancelled. The second attempt was an equal failure. That's because of 1 thing, Blackberry. My dad was so traumatized with how many steps aka folder he had to memorize to select just to do one thing, let alone connecting to internet. Even I myself had difficulties in using Blackberry. So, that leaves dad with... reading and listening to radio on his spare time for the past few years and his resistance to technology gets worse. He saw my cousins facebooking, tweeting etc, so he knows that the world has gone that advance but he's just not following, and he feels so far away from that world, all the more to fear. www is a scarry world.
The idea of a new trial to introduce dad to the www again came about during the weekly call with my brother. My brother basically just popped up the idea that would it be nice for dad to create memories? Eg. when you walk around in Singapore, you take a picture of what you see or eat, record your thoughts at the spot and then later you can flip through what you've done for, say the past few days. The bothersome thing to do if you have the plain old camera with the film in it, you have to wait for the staff at the photo shop (not photoshop the program) to process the film, print it into a glossy or matte pictures, and even in the small town now, people make the look when you ask them to do so because everything is in jpg file now. My dad agreed, but with lots of cautions aka resistances that he's old already, mind not able to process lots of things etc, which is somewhat true, BUT, my dad is still able to memorize lots of events unconsciously. So both of us, the children, are confident and insist that dad can digest it all if it's done with a ... tablet. An Android tablet should be easy enough for him, provided we set it up correctly for his convinience.
So, that's when we started the project: Introducing dad to www. 3rd time should be a charm, right?
1. Buy a tablet
Which tablet is suitable for him? Dad has to be able to accept the look and feel for him to be able to use it, right? So, off we go to the Best Buy equivalent. First, it's the I-pad. I hate Apple's gadget and this trial confirms why. It's so hard for me to explain things to my dad because we can't go back step by step like Android can (yeah, I'm just don't like everything i-blabla). Next we tried Toshiba's Regza. Tell you the truth, I like and dad also like! But the price? *sobs sobs* A bit of caution here because it's dad's first tablet, so it has to be in mid-range aka durable and friendly enough but not overly pricey in case dad doesn't like. So, we ended up choosing Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. Not too pricey, not too small aka dad still can read the stuff from there, not too heavy, and not China brand.
2. Set up time
We all can live with lots of Apps and widgets on our phones, but not an elderly with limitation in tech knowledge. So, language set up must be in Indonesian, with just a few buttons (as needed basis only). The most important is that as much as possible he just need to click one time to get to the websites that he likes. So, it means some bookmarks and some widgets only on the first screen.
3. Introduction time
Repeatition is gold here. The steps must be turn it on, see the icons, repeadtedly tell him which is what. Dad likes to read newspapers, so I set him up lots of bookmarks on newspapers. Also, taught him how to search as well, so that he can browse. First encounter was awkward because he had difficulties in using the touch screen, but who wouldn't? It happened to all of us. So, slowly but sure, he gets used to it and now ocassionally still cannot click properly, but after 2nd or 3rd try, he managed to do it. By the time you know it, he was engrossed reading his online newspaper! I was so proud watching that.
4. Youtube time
Dad like oldies, so it has to be the KING who introduce him to the world of Youtube. I showed him how to search for Elvis' songs and he was very impressed, like we were all wow-ed with Youtube for the first time. Also shows him how to search for all his fave oldies singers, and for the next few hours, I heard so many different things from the tablet. Me: Yeyyy!!!!
*LJ doesn't allow me to upload my sunshine boy gifs!!!! WHY!!!!!
So, in 2 days, dad has taken a very huge leap of technology and I think he enjoys it. It's a new thing for him, it brings us closer in a way, and he has other things to do during his spare time too, rather than just iddling.
What's next? It has to be gradually and dad need to be accustomed to browsing before I can introduce him to the joy of www.
1. Make dad remember the difference between Wifi and 3G. And why you need 3G when you want to browse around during your 6 hours trip to Jakarta. This includes how to choose your data plan as well.
2. Using Google translation. This is very important because Dad only know Bahasa Indonesia. Google is heaven because you can translate the whole page to the language that you want (even to Sundanese, for goodness sake), so this will be useful and it'll open dad to another new world, the real www.
2. Whatsapp -- more important than Facebook, I want dad to be able to chat with me and bro first. Whatsapp is the same like SMS, with more emoticon and uploading pics is a breeze :).
3. Facebook -- Dad just asked about it. But I think it's not the time now to let him drown in Facebook. Things could be overwhelming.
So, stay tune, who knows, by the time you know it, dad also has an LJ account and also blogging his way away LOL!!!!!
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-09 09:58 pm (UTC)