There’s a particular older (70+) couple I’ve known for a long time. As typical with many people in this age category, they have had a hard time embracing all that technology offers. They do have a cell phone, but are “afraid” to use it at times for fear of going over their minutes. Now, I realize that we do pay for minutes. But, I remember “back” when we’d buy minutes by the tens. I rarely talk to people who are truly concerned about minutes these days.
So, what about a computer? Forget it! I told one of them that I thought they’d greatly enjoy a computer with internet access. They LOVE information. “look at that!” and “I didn’t know” and “I heard that…” are all common phrases from their mouths. I figure they’d have a heyday on wikipedia. But no, they choose to “live a lifestyle” (their words) without a computer. Not sure what the fear is. I think they’d pick up on it quickly.
So, we’re chatting recently and they told me of when they went camping. They had bought a flat panel TV to conserve space in their RV and wanted to use it, but, as they camped, they didn’t have cable access. A fellow camper came over and helped them hook up the TV to an antenna. Like, over the air broadcasting stuff here. They were amazed that you could get, like 15 channels just from the air. They had no idea that was even possible! So, I told them, “back in my day…” Really? These people are generally pretty frugal people and apparently they forgot about the days before cable TV. It was if I had just told them they could get water or electricity for free. They were astounded.
