It was about 13 months ago, that I purchased a cell phone for my late 70's year old mother an all touch phone that was really a "dumb" phone, not a smartphone. The phone was made by Pantech and had two operational options. You could open it in the regular mode or switch over to the "Easy" mode. The Easy mode made all the on screen numbers and letters much bigger for older eyes to see. The phone also had an optional pullout keyboard for those who preferred that old "keyboard button" feel over touch screen.
Months earlier I had given that same phone as a gift to a 60 something, female coworker. Needless to say, both gifts failed for both women, mostly for the same reasons. Both women were initially very afraid and intimidated by the all touch phone. They were only use to pressing numbers on a dialing pad. In the case of my mother, she has seen and been using phones since the early 1940's. Can you imagine the evolution she has seen in that time period? As for my coworker, she's been using phones since the late 1950's. She too has seen a lot of changes.
Heck I can remember seeing payphone booths down in the subway of New York City when I was growing up? They were always on the grimy and dirty side. Of course I remember the old blue rotary phone that was nearly made a landmark
Since cellular phones became popular from the hit1984 TV series "Miami Vice" (car phone) and movie, 1987's "Lethal Weapon" (Danny Glover's character giving the police counselor a secret call about Mel Gibb's character - you see Glover holding a small suitcase sized phone battery in one hand and telephone in the other hand).
Since then, cell phones have morphed from the size of a basketball high top sneaker, to something that was about the size of a matchbook. But, those were just the simple cellular phones. You were happy to be able to make phone calls and not charge your battery for two days. Then in the later part of the first decade of the 2000's, we've been watching the explosion of the smartphone. Phones that allow you to tap into the Internet and literally have portable mini computers attached to your waist. We've gone from 2G to now 4G LTE or Long Term Evolution. Now your phone is not just judge by the quality of your phone call, but also by the quality of your television or YouTube video reception.
So what ever became of the phone that I gave my mother and coworker? Well, both of them commented that the phone was too cranky. It did not "flow" like an iPhone, Android or even Blackberry. The phone would freeze, or behave choppy, the call quality wasn't always the best and that made both of them feel even more nervous and intimidated to use it. In both cases they ditched their phones.
However, I am proud to day that at more than a year later, both my mom and coworker have not given up on the new technology. My mother is very happy with the new Vizio television and it's fancy remote control. Although her cell phone is a simple one, she's looking forward to tackling a tablet that I purchased for her. She's been warming herself up on my sister's Windows phone and laptop. As for my co-worker...boy did she really jump ahead leaps and bounds. She now has a perfectly fine working Android phone and an iPad. Both of them credit me with introducing them to the digital age.
That is the goal of this blog, to help introduce people from 30 years on up into this ever evolving technological world. Thanks for checking in.
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