Good job not enabling although your Mom is still going to need your help managing tech despite your intent to be a catalyst for change. More realistic way to create change would be to suggest all millennials who are losing time and money helping their parents navigate tech - they need to contact local news sources with their stories. It will show two things: 1. The largest generation since the boomers does not quietly condone this nonsense. 2. They CARE about the well being of their parents. In an aside Adam, caring for the well being of multiple generations has been the American way for a very long time. Tech’s impersonal heart of stone evolution has been influenced by smart millennials who were forced to grow up in a brutal dog eat dog world. These paradigms have been programmed into algorithms and written into today’s service processes. Stand against it. Stand for your loved ones. Set boundaries with big tech while you still can.
Dave’s third law: “mediocrity is a better business model than excellence”. I coined this in the 90s when the first wave of ISPs were run by techies who knew their stuff (I recall ringing up at quarter to midnight and getting spot-on customer support). Having built up their reputation for excellence, they then sold out to a mainstream ISP, promising to continue the excellent service. They lied. They sacked all the techies and replaced them with call centres and scripts… ignore the actual problem, get customer to reinstall the software yada yada. Lying (aka marketing) is cheaper than fixing things.
I share your frustration supporting aging parents with technology. While I believe older people can reach the point of "I can't keep up anymore" I also believe that relying on support from a tech savvy friend or relative is a form of learned helplessness.
What I wonder is, did we do this to ourselves? For years we've sought out online forums, chat or videos to help troubleshoot technology that had very little official support. The prospect of an open technology platform that allows enthusiasts to tinker with the system is exhilarating, and totally inaccessible to a novice. Mom and dad don't want a million settings to tweak, they just want the darn thing to work.
Case in point even an iPhone with default settings is sometimes too complicated for a parent. We laugh about basic feature phones, but sometimes it's the best option. Maybe an answer is to make more simple, single purpose technology?
Great piece. But I think the tech companies aren't going to invest in properly trained support staff while the lure of AI helpbots is just around the corner - or actually, here right now, on this platform (which I've found weirdly impressive if sometimes just wrong). Soon this will be in audio and visual form, and coming out of speakers and tvs and fridges. None of this is a good idea, in terms of people have jobs, skills, etc, but I can't see any forces pushing back against that.
Even Google Business pages could need a ton of support. When you put up a profile and later need to make changes it's tough.
Prob why it's tough switching social networks. Once people learn FB, they don't want to learn other platforms and there's no customer support to help you learn the new platform.
Good job not enabling although your Mom is still going to need your help managing tech despite your intent to be a catalyst for change. More realistic way to create change would be to suggest all millennials who are losing time and money helping their parents navigate tech - they need to contact local news sources with their stories. It will show two things: 1. The largest generation since the boomers does not quietly condone this nonsense. 2. They CARE about the well being of their parents. In an aside Adam, caring for the well being of multiple generations has been the American way for a very long time. Tech’s impersonal heart of stone evolution has been influenced by smart millennials who were forced to grow up in a brutal dog eat dog world. These paradigms have been programmed into algorithms and written into today’s service processes. Stand against it. Stand for your loved ones. Set boundaries with big tech while you still can.
This is a great comment
Dave’s third law: “mediocrity is a better business model than excellence”. I coined this in the 90s when the first wave of ISPs were run by techies who knew their stuff (I recall ringing up at quarter to midnight and getting spot-on customer support). Having built up their reputation for excellence, they then sold out to a mainstream ISP, promising to continue the excellent service. They lied. They sacked all the techies and replaced them with call centres and scripts… ignore the actual problem, get customer to reinstall the software yada yada. Lying (aka marketing) is cheaper than fixing things.
I share your frustration supporting aging parents with technology. While I believe older people can reach the point of "I can't keep up anymore" I also believe that relying on support from a tech savvy friend or relative is a form of learned helplessness.
What I wonder is, did we do this to ourselves? For years we've sought out online forums, chat or videos to help troubleshoot technology that had very little official support. The prospect of an open technology platform that allows enthusiasts to tinker with the system is exhilarating, and totally inaccessible to a novice. Mom and dad don't want a million settings to tweak, they just want the darn thing to work.
Case in point even an iPhone with default settings is sometimes too complicated for a parent. We laugh about basic feature phones, but sometimes it's the best option. Maybe an answer is to make more simple, single purpose technology?
Great piece. But I think the tech companies aren't going to invest in properly trained support staff while the lure of AI helpbots is just around the corner - or actually, here right now, on this platform (which I've found weirdly impressive if sometimes just wrong). Soon this will be in audio and visual form, and coming out of speakers and tvs and fridges. None of this is a good idea, in terms of people have jobs, skills, etc, but I can't see any forces pushing back against that.
Even Google Business pages could need a ton of support. When you put up a profile and later need to make changes it's tough.
Prob why it's tough switching social networks. Once people learn FB, they don't want to learn other platforms and there's no customer support to help you learn the new platform.