Funny things mom says while trying to figure out the Internet

Funny things mom says while trying to figure out the Internet

By Rona Waddington

For her 85th birthday, I gave my mother an iPad. She’d never used a computer. She had a trying relationship with her TV remote control and a miserable(ˈmiz(ə)rəb(ə)l) track record with her cell, an old-style flip phone that she rarely(ˈrerlē) bothered to take out of the drawer(ˈdrôr) and, when she did, never thought to turn on.

She was keen(kēn) on a tablet(ˈtablət) because she knew people who had them and she believed that if she didn’t keep up with technology, even in her own small way, she’d one day find herself in a computerized(kəmˈpyo͞odəˌrīzd) kitchen(ˈkiCH(ə)n), “unable to open a can of soup.”

She loved the hot pink case that my husband picked out for her. She bought a notebook of the same colour in which to write instructions on how to work all the apps.

Our first task was e-mail. She quickly learned the fundamentals(ˌfəndəˈmen(t)əl) but couldn’t see the point of e-mailing(ˈmāliNG) when she could phone or visit in person.

Next, we tackled(ˈtak(ə)l) Netflix. Mom’s a movie lover with a seemingly(ˈsēmiNGlē) bottomless(ˈbädəmləs) appetite(ˈapəˌtīt) for murder mysteries, of the more macabre(məˈkäbrə) variety(vəˈrīədē). She was astonished(əˈstänəSHt) by the glut(ɡlət) of crime(krīm) thrillers(ˈTHrilər) that Netflix has on offer but what truly excited(ikˈsīdəd) her was the Recommendations feature.

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