Idiotech

Parents, teachers, bosses, and the general old people population are terrible with technology.

Idiotech
uPick
Up +31 Down
Uneducated Educator

My dad, who has a degree in education and works as a career counselor at a local college, will not properly use bold, italics, or underlining when writing email messages. Instead, he INSISTS on CAPITALIZING certain words for EMPHASIS throughout his WHOLE MESSAGE.

#0
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Cell phone battery vs power grid

My parents just told my sister that they think the can't use their cellphone if the power goes out.

#1
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"Did you call me?"

I work at a furniture store, and sometimes I'm asked to ride shotgun on one of the delivery trucks. The driver is in his 50's and a bit eccentric. Each truck has a flip-open cell phone to communicate with the store, and this driver is often worried he's missed a call. But instead of looking for the little envelope icon to indicate a missed message, he insists on opening the... Read More » phone and starting to dial a number just so he can listen for the "message waiting" beep. Or better yet, often he will call the store to see if they called us, just in case.

#2
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Hot Spot

My dad has had an iPhone for quite some time now. No matter how many times that I tell him otherwise, he thinks he can only use safari on it if he turns his personal hotspot on. He also thinks that turning it on will somehow boost his signal. He even has my stepmom log into his hotspot to use the Internet even though she too has an iPhone and hey have a shared data plan.

#3
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Well that's one way to do it...

My girlfriend was creating a report and created a different word document for each section. When she realized that she needed to include page numbers, instead of combining them into one document she proceeded to print out 96 pages with only the page numbers on them. Then, insert the pages back into the printer and print each document on top of them.

#4
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Write it down.

So I'm teaching my mom how to use email on her computer. So she's sitting in the desk chair and I'm standing over her shoulder. I say, "Ok, so turn on the computer". She goes, "Hold on." She then stands up, goes to get pencil and paper and proceeds to write down "Turn computer on". I say, "You did not just write that, did you?"

#5
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Song titles.

My Dad, who works at a prominent computer hardware company, will get music off the internet and then will put every song title into an excel document and label that he has it, then he will print off two copies of the document and keep them in separate locations and tell me it is just in case he forgets where one is he can find the other one and know what songs he has, he does... Read More » this every time, we have paper lists everywhere around the house!

#6
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Recycle the Recycle Bin

My aunt, who is for the most part good with computers, did some desktop organizing. She accidentally deleted the Recycle Bin icon off her desktop. She went insane, thinking she completely deleted the Recycle Bin off her computer.

#7
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Goggle it.

One day my parents called me to their house and asked why "google" wasn't working, and that they were forced to take a survey everytime they searched something. Turns out, they spelt google "goggle".

#8
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A piece of paper.

When using our computer, my mom called me over and sounded very annoyed. She gestured to the moniter and asked "How do I get a piece of paper?" ...she meant Microsoft Word. She has been a lawyer typing cases for 20 years. She still always uses the program to do her work. Trust me, I am more confused than she is.

#9
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Desktop.

My mom was having trouble finding something she downloaded, so I told her just to "put it on her desktop". She told me she did, then asked how to get the printed copies off of her desk and back into her computer.

#10
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Gossip.

The vast majority of my extended family has gotten facebook, typically just because they love to keep up on gossip, and the gossip of the younger generation is way more interesting to them than the older gossip. Well, all of my aunts, and my grandmother, without fail, will tell me their thoughts on all my wall posts and comments every time i come home for christmas. When I ask... Read More » them why they don't just comment on the posts themselves, their typical response is "Well I didn't want to invade your privacy" Yeah, because reading all my posts then confronting me about them en masse on holidays is much better...

#11
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Turn it on.

My mom asked me why her keyboard wasn't working. After about six seconds of troubleshooting, I discovered that the computer wasn't even turned on.

#12
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The Blinky Thing.

My grandmother, (bless her heart) bought herself a new computer for Christmas. After attempting to install Microsoft Office 2003, (which isn't compatible with Windows 7) she was content to spend $150 on Office so she would have Power Point to open the slideshows of "pretty pictures" that her friends forward to her. Today, when typing up her list of addresses (it's taken her about... Read More » two hours so far,) she asked, "Which button do I push to get this blinky thing to the next line?" She was talking about the "Enter" button.

#13
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LOL.

My mom ends every text with "LOL", she thinks it means "lots of love". This lead to her sending me the text "please call me Molly died LOL" Molly was her cat.

#14
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Wii.

My Grandparents bought a Wii 'on a whim', and they keep it in their wardrobe because it will 'waste energy if it's always plugged in'. They also have only one controller, and no games for it.

#15
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Plugged in.

My grandparents call me when they have a computer problem. Recently, they called because the computer wasn't turning on. I asked them if it was plugged in and they said yes, it was plugged in to the wall. I asked them if it was plugged in to the back of the computer. It wasn't. Problem solved.

#16
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they forgot the stylus

I work for a us cellular. I had a older lady call in who had just got the note 2 She said,"I love this phone but they forgot the pen thing!" I then spent the next 15mins explaining how the s-pen was in the phone and where it was and how to take it out.

#17
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Mum's just don't understand

I was reading a book at my desk the other day while my computer ran it's regular virus scan. Being too lazy to put it off I just left my laptop open. My mother then walks into the room and starts raging that I spend too much time watching anime (which I do, but that's not the point). I pointed out that I was reading (the book was quite large and hard to miss). She then yells "... Read More »Do you think I'm stupid, I can see it there on the screen". My wallpaper was an artwork done in anime style, and when I explained this and pointed out all the files and folders located on the "movie" I was watching she simply said, well that wallpaper is proof enough that you watch too much crap.

#18
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Volume.

My dad just bought my mom a brand new SUV for Christmas this year. While driving it on Christmas Day, he was trying to change the volume on the radio. He thinks that the big gray buttons on the steering wheel can do that, because they have a plus and minus sign on them. It didn't work. My dad doesn't know that those buttons are actually used to shift gears when the car is in... Read More » manual mode.

#19