Paying for parking at a casino should piss you off though.



Paying to drive on roads commandeered by terrible for-profit companies should piss you off too

Voice messages sent through text. ffs. I reluctantly got used to texting instead of phone calls, now I have to listen to voicemails in the middle of a text thread because you don't want to type it out? Seethe.

Also, I am not pissed and don't know if I should be or not, but I went back to the first page of this thread for the first time and y'all nitpicking mother****ers have created a standard that didn't exist in the beginning. Plenty of things that should piss people off right from the op.

Voicemail greetings.

All of them (I know you can't come to the phone right now, and I know that you'll call me back later), but especially the generic one. "The number of you have reached, (555) 555-1212 is unavailable..." I know the ****ing number I have reached, I dialed it. Waiting those 15 seconds or whatever is infuriating.

The goal is to get you to hang up and text like a sane person.

You go ahead and text my mom and see how you like it, Mr. Sane Person.

I agree about outgoing vm greetings. There is no solution I can think of, but we are still recording them like back when answering machines were a new concept.

And taking the time to tell me my call is important to you is stupid. Or that you will call me back at "your earliest convenience". But generic ones are also bad. The answer is to become even more isolated and end all communication imo.

My Mom and I have been engaged in a multi-year passive aggressive battle over text vs. phone call for quick exchanges.

She calls to tell me some 3 word thing. I ignore the voicemail until she texts.

I text something normal. She calls me back. I ignore her call. Etc.

I see no end in sight.

I deliberately don't put my name or voice on mine as I don't want spammers to get any extra information that it's a live line.

Just the thought of my mom holding a smart phone gives me the chills. The technical support opportunities would be seriously infinite. I guess that leads to another thing that shouldn't piss me off but does: endless technical support to elders.

My mom just bought a new laptop because her power cord connection needed to be replaced and created a new skype account to go with it.

I am teaching my Dad to copy and paste. So far we've spent about 6 hours and are still iffy on selecting text (which he calls "turning it blue").

He writes poems and would just retype anything he wanted to copy. But then he got a contract for a full length book, hence the need for copy and paste.

However he called me on an already stressful day in a complete panic because he had somehow deleted 4 chapters of his book. Over the phone, while driving in LA traffic, I managed to piece together that he had:

1) hit Ctrl-A selected to select 4 chapters which were in one document

2) instead of hitting Ctrl-C, typed the letter C - wiping out all that text - he always forgets he has to hold down control while hitting C

3) panicked, and instead of hitting Ctrl-Z like I drilled into him over and over and over, or calling me, somehow managed to save, then close his only copy of the document - with all the text replaced by the letter C

Inevitable questions:

Why not have him use right-click or menu options for copy paste? Well, he's terrified of those options. He sees all that stuff in the top menu and is instantly bewildered. He also uses his laptop trackpad and right-clicking is just too much to ask.

Was he told repeatedly to back up important documents? Yes. Several hundred times.

Was I blamed for giving him the awesome and terrible power to wipe out so much text with Ctrl-A and Ctrl *then* C? Yes. Yes I was. But I shot that down pretty quick with a threat to never help him again.

And finally I got the speech, which I always get, about how he's a right-brained poet and computers just don't make sense to him. To which I just nod along - except one time when I explained to him I was only asking him to do the computer equivalent of a Jack and Jill poem - not The Wasteland.

Congratulations!

suzzer, that is such a relatable story. My father (89) and my mother (just passed away three months ago at age 86) have always looked to me for the help you describe. My dad now has an iPad and has to relearn the simplest techniques over and over again. He's constantly aggravated by Windows opening when he's on the internet (this happens as he touches links on the screen when he's attempting to scroll, etc).

My dad has a Master's degree in aeronautical engineering from Cal Tech, so obv not dumb, but the technology gap is too great for him. I can't tell you how many times my mother just wanted to get rid of her computer and get a new one, as if that would solve the problem. And whenever I showed her how to do something, she would take meticulous notes as if there was only that one way to achieve the result desired.

You want a real challenge? Try talking them through a problem with their computer over the phone.

Weird that we're the last generation to know people that do not know how to operate a computer/the Internet.

There will be something new that we don't get (or don't want to get). At a certain age you just stop advancing with new technology.

Chick fil a being closed on sundays

I live in LA and my dad in KC. It's all phone support

My Dad always takes meticulous notes too. But then he can't understand his notes and takes them all over again the next time.

TSPYO

I'm curious if this will prove true. I'm not a huge technology or computer guy, but my brother is and has spent the last 20+ years on a computer. I can't imagine him ever not being up on new technology, even as he reaches 70, 80. And I'm assuming that the current generation of kids who don't realize we didn't have YouTube machines in our pocket at that age will also continue to adapt to new tech.

Was there an ubiquitous new technology analogous to computers/the internet that baby boomers mocked their elders for being unable to get a basic grasp of?

Writing letters vs using a telephone?

those durn horseless carriages break down all the time and I've had blaze and flicks healthy for years!
a telegraph is much more reliable than those newfangled telephones!
how do I put a stamp on my email?!?

When I was a kid in the 70s old people drove really really slow, much worse than today. And they were terrified if they ever had to go on the highway. They would stop in the merge lane if they weren't 100% sure they could get over. It was really annoying and dangerous. I think if you learned to drive pre-freeways you never really got used to driving at speed. Sort of like if you didn't learn to drive on snow and ice when you were young you never get used to it.

When I was in college you could easily tell the kids who grew up flipping channels on cable TV vs. those who didn't. The kids with cable were more scatter-brained and better at multi-tasking. The kids w/o could focus better but weren't very good at paying attention to more than one thing at once.

Penthouse Magazine blew me away when I was 14. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be a teenager with endless free internet porn of every possible variety. I'm not sure how millennial males even function w/o severe sexual issues.

My 32-year-old coworker swears our 27-year-old coworker is in a different generation, which can't focus on anything, because they grew up with Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh - all just flashing lights and colors. Hearing him rant about it (in a German accent) is some of the funniest **** I've ever heard.

The next generation is going to mock you because you insist on typing on a keyboard instead of using your brain chip.

I already feel out of depth on all the different ways to watch tv that arent simply having tv

I refuse to watch youtube as a source of entertainment. I want a TV and a remote control or I don't feel relaxed. Youtube on the TV is painful.