Parents Just Don't Understand: 5/20

Do your parents not understand technology? Do they ask you stupid questions? Do they send you absurd text messages? Do they use words like “MyFace,”“SpaceBook,“or “The World Wide Web?”

My Mom got into American Idol for the first time and gives me weekly updates on one of the contestants that is from my hometown. The most recent one was “… and he sang that song ‘One’ by ‘Bone-o’ from ‘YouTube!!’”
Colin Kenley, Northeastern

I asked my dad to pick up a DVD for my mother. He bought her the soundtrack to the movie instead.
Laura Anne, University of Iowa

I sent my father a long Google link to a photo, and he proceeded to print out the actual web address. He thought the printer would “decode the link” and turn it into a photo.
Sam E, Northeastern

The intern in our office left two weeks ago for finals and graduation, so our boss called up a temp agency to fill the spot before our summer intern starts in June. The temp agency sent over Madge (insert image of post menopausal housewife who never heeded the surgeon general’s warnings on the packs of Marlboros she inhales hourly). On her first day, within the first 5 minutes, she asked where the ashtrays were, we said we don’t have any, so on her 10:30 break, she drove back to her trailer park and brought one back for her desk and two others for the “other smokers.” (No one here smokes.) Later that day, I got an E-mail from my boss that he sent from his Blackberry asking me to please replace the magenta cartridge in the color printer, tell Madge she could take off early, and call the temp agency, demand a refund and new person the next day. Apparently, Madge had burst into an important meeting our boss had with some new accounts and announced she had to show him something immediately. She wouldn’t tell him what the problem was, she made him get up, follow her to the color printer, and pointed out that it says “replace mgnt.” Our boss just looked at her blankly and she replied “Don’t you see, it says ‘Replace Management’!!! You’ve been replaced!!! And I’ve intercepted the message by mistake!!!” And that is what spawned his E-mail.
k a, Chicago

My mom thinks her Hotmail is her website.
Jean-Francois Lepine

My great grandmother dresses up to watch television because she doesn’t want the men on TV to see her in her nightgown.
Ty Jacobs, Idaho

At least once a week my grandma would call me saying her TV was broken until I had to use parental lock to block all the channels except for the input so she could watch satellite.
Michael Toedtli, CCD

My mom still receives, opens, enjoys, and laughs out loud at e-cards.
Julia S

I work at a large electronics retail chain and one day we had all of the big VP’s in because our store is being remodeled. I work with cameras and one came over asking me questions because the one corporate gave him was “broken”, it was brand new so I asked what was wrong. He said it wouldn’t turn on, and I asked if he checked the batteries and he laughed with all the other big shots and told me, “Obviously”. I then looked at it and hit the power button, it turned on immediately. Turns out he had been pressing the shutter button the entire time.
Dan F.

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