Katrina Tweedie
“NANA is a Class A Facebook addict,” warned my teenager, exasperated by a query from our soon-to-be-octogenerian.
He was trying to explain that a recently deceased friend wasn’t posting from beyond the grave – it was Facebook’s algorithm showing old posts in Nana’s timeline.
The teenager has fielded a barrage of questions since Nana was given a tablet and introduced to the delights of social media and the internet.
Like opening Pandora’s box, she has discovered the delights of having the world at her fingertips.
Suddenly the answer to every question she ever had is available on Google.
And the teenager is guiding Nana through the technicalities of Facebook, Spotify and her Kindle, patiently explaining these wonders of the modern age.
One friend has to clean the crumbs regularly from her mum’s new laptop - she settles down every afternoon with a cup of tea and some biscuits, leaving a crumb trail in the keyboard. It gives a new meaning to digital cookies.
Another friend’s gran failed to find the space bar leaving everyone trying to figure out where the words began and ended. And yet another had to spend ages explaining to her dad what a “poke” was on Facebook. Thankfully, it’s now a “wave”.
My friend Cat relates this tale: “My dad wouldn’t do his homework from his iPad class at the local library, which was simply to send the tutor an email. He refuses to get email as ‘Putin would get all my information’. I tried to reassure him the leader of
Nana is now connected with her grandchildren on the other side of the world
Russia wouldn’t be interested in the weather in Rothesay or downloading Jimmy Shand tunes, but he’s having none of it.” But the stereotype of the technologically clueless older person is unfair. We may all be attached to our smart phones now, but we were all like Nana in the beginning. Like slowly boiling a frog – by the time we realise how addictive and all- consuming our digital habits have become, it’s too late. And the upside is, of course, tremendous. Nana is now connected with her grandchildren on the other side of the world and with old friends stretching back decades. Like many older people on their own she no longer feels isolated and has a window on the world. Oldies have taken to the digital age and so have their grandchildren and it’s the generation in between – me – who are increasingly looking at technology with fear and resentment. It’s only a matter of time before Nana tells me to move with the times.