And looking for reasons to buy new versions of things: phones, laptops, gaming devices, etc. Bonus points if they're on the edge of not being able to afford it at all.
Not quite this, but my dad will buy the absolute cheapest versions of things and get mad when I can't get it to do the claims on the box. I'm sorry I din't think this $25 smart watch is an actual replacement for the machine you use to measure blood pressure ;_;
I bought my dad airpods to go with his iPad, he never uses them and insists on using some cheap shit bone conducting headset thing that he wears wrong with the bone conduction pads over his ear holes.
I empathize with your dad on this, one, cannot stand how most earbuds plug up your ears. You might wanna get your dad more expensive bone-conducting headset, or at least open-ear earbuds
Highly recommend Koss KSC75s for that. They're basically small headset pads with hooks to go over the ears. Decent sound and no ear plugging
my dad also does this, and ngl it freaked me out a little bit when he decided to stick a banking app on an old oneplus 5T that didn't even get security updates anymore, what's worse he strongly refused the idea of me gifting him a newer phone, even a cheap-ish one. like i can afford it, god it's no big deal.
I was going to say most banks probably don't support older versions of Android for their apps, and realized he's probably using a sketchy 3rd party app
maybe not in the states, that official banking app supports android versions all the way back to Android 6.0, the last android version supported by the OP5T is 10, so on that regard it was fine at least. you'd be surprised at how far back you can go compatibility-wise without breaking stuff with android's first party compat libraries.
god if he was using a 3rd party app I would have fucking showed up at his doorstep at 12am and force him to update all his credentials.
Not quite the same thing, but my FIL tends to put zero research into buying new tech items and gets easily sold on whatever hunk of crap the Best Buy salesperson is pushing on them. Which leads to a lot of cheap crap that breaks down after a few years. The most confounding part is this is someone who was a high-powered tech CEO back in the 90’s, and it’s like “how the fuck did you get anything done in those jobs?”
My grandpa used to do this but he'd buy one for us too so my dad and I could figure it out and then go hang out with him while we set it up and showed him how to use it, which is how we ended up with cool shit like a universal remote control half the size of a cinderblock with an LCD on it in 1999.
RIP grandpa
Yup. Have one that expects me to teach them how to use something all the time. Doesn't listen to or bother remembering anything I told them and so expects me to be on call to help them use it every time they want to use it.
Basically, they can't be assed learning anything new and just expect me to do everything for them.
This is in stark contrast to how my grandmother aged, she was basically self-sufficient to the end. So It's been strange watching a lot of boomers, who complain about my generation being too childish, act like dependent children themselves. I know that's probably harsh, but it's actually kind of scary.
Not really this but my dad has an amazing ability to set up any electronic thing in a way that is overwhelmingly complex for no reason, takes 3 hours, requires tools and frustrates him to no end. My man setting up a TV to a stereo system with a cable box and maybe a game console will end out requiring like 9 remotes used in a specific sequence that sometimes doesn't work for 'no reason' (dude technically has a computer programming degree, it's just from the days of punch cards, but he should still understand machines are deterministic). It's a pretty amazing feat. Both of my folks are amazingly skilled at making simple tasks into incredibly complicated chores.
but he should still understand machines are deterministic
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I'm with your dad on this one
My fucking d/gen mother had be coaxed into buying an $80 pair of shoes for my sister for Christmas but just bought herself a Switch and Hogwarts Legacy (bleh) just now. And now is trying to ask me questions about how to use it and "how to put games on it". FUCK OFF. Fucking loser. She also refuses to put her hearing aids in so she wants me to not only thoroughly explain all of this, which she can't be bothered to remember, but also to fucking impossibly boil it down to yes or no questions and simple statements.
It will be shoved into a drawer in 1-2 weeks after she realizes I can't easily pirate more games for it or pirating games for it isn't simple, free, and instantaneous. Also refuses to read or learn anything in video games and thus keeps getting "bored" of them because they require literally any effort.
CW: a bunch of bad, bad stuff
Her abused-by-abandonment dog just died 2 days ago. Was yelping in pain the last few days and I was like "something needs to be done here" before this happened. I'm so glad it seemed to have died in its sleep in its bed. But before -- the last week or so -- she just took her hearing aids out so we have to hear it suffer and she pretends, or is so vacuous that really, nothing is wrong to her.
My father and I had to go bury it while she huffs and puffs all day as a way to try to manipulate us into caring about her. Honestly surprised she didn't call into work so she could be the ultimate hypocrite because she once told someone there (she handles scheduling there somewhat) that they should still come into work after their friend committed suicide.
Where are the "Life is great" freaks? Come on out and reveal yourselves. I will destroy you. I'm forced to live in this flesh prison so you dipshits can frolic in Omelas.
I'm genuinely really sorry that you're going through this but I am mostly replying to say that is a fucking raw as hell line, nice job
Pirating games on switch can be simple, free, and instantaneous if it's an old switch and you can follow a simple online guide first but that's beyond most boomers
Being “good with technology” is 90% looking things up and following instructions, and technology has only gotten easier to use over the years. The fact that so many boomers struggle with it tells me that they simply don’t want to take the time or care to do anything properly. All their talk about the laziness and entitlement of young people is projection.
knowing how to look things up and sift through the gradually-enshittifying internet for instructions is a skill in and of itself these days
every piracy forum has so many posts that are just "i followed this 9 year old youtube tutorial with single digit views, and is my console bricked?"
Sure it's a skill, but it's a skill they should have been developing for the last 20 years
My mom: buys a laptop. Complains that no one is showing her how to use it. Barely uses it - checks email and watches youtube links. 5 years later, buys new laptop. Cycle repeats.
My much older brother: sees me playing a miyoo mini or other device I've programmed (this includes everything from dicking around with Plex servers to playing Mario on an RPi mini to running Yuzu on my desktop or playing games on my very outdated phone using a Razer Kishi, and everything inbetween). Asks if I can set him up. I buy him device for Xmas or birthday or whatever, program everything up if necessary, or whatever it takes to set him up. Two months later everything I've done for him is effectively untouched or abandoned. His excuse: I just don't have time to figure it out.
I visit him, usually with something cool in tote. And the cycle repeats.
I had a friend's dad make fun of me for using an Android, and I was like, 'Iphones are made with the idea that you are a stupid little child who will break any software you touch. If it wasn't for the shit-tier build quality, I would literally assume they were made for babies-first-technology like a Leap Pad. If you like it, it says more about your technological literacy than mine, I'd probably have to jailbreak it immediately to get basic cross platform functionality out of it.'
Needless to say, I haven't been invited back for dinner there. Still friends with the guy though.
My go-to response to any sort of smart phone slapfighting is “they’re all made in the same Foxconn plant.”
My dad is annoyingly frugal, so he'll live with fully obsolete hardware and he won't even let me do a fresh OS install.
Well, ya know, with technology these days I'm beginning to feel like I'm the boomer here. Amiritefolks,?
This is awesome if you have a friendly relationship with them and the boomers aren't completely deranged because it means free shit.
My dad got a new iphone and was all excited right up until I told him I don't do family tech support for those. It was returned for some discount motorola which works fine. Motherfucker you only use it as a phone and barely text, you could use a flip phone!
The old people in my life sometimes feel they need to have more up to date technology. I explain to them that actually if they're just using the computer for the internet they're basically fine with what they have
far more often in my experience old people are tech averse
