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   Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-Mar-2023 16:21:57 JST Patrick V. ????

   ?1/7 - My dad just celebrated his 90th birthday and is still very much sound of mind and body. When we moved to #Thailand 2 years ago I gave him a smartphone with WhatsApp so we could stay in touch. I taught him how to turn on/off the screen and how to answer a video call. Anything more complex than that he could not seem to comprehend.
   He refuses to call it a phone, instead he calls it "that box"... We video-chat every Sunday, and he often tells me it makes him happy that we can do that.

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     Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-Mar-2023 16:21:55 JST Patrick V. ????

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     ? 6/7 - It saddens me a bit. We could have so much more contact and direct and frequent engagement in each other's daily lives, which I know he would want to have too, but instead we have to restrict ourselves to that Sunday video call. It's better than nothing, but it could be so much richer...

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     Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-Mar-2023 16:21:55 JST Patrick V. ????

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     ? 7/7 - The lesson is: we all take modern tech for granted, we live a large portion of our lives through our phones and our computers, but there’s a big group of people like my dad who are completely cut off from that world and that way of living and communicating. Be kind to them, allow them to be who they are, assist them where you can, and provide alternatives they can and want to work with.

     clacke likes this.
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     Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-Mar-2023 16:21:56 JST Patrick V. ????

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     ? 4/7 - Now my dad is not stupid, and he still very much has his wits about him and has always been quite smart and good with his hands (and still is). I remember from my childhood that he was capable of figuring out how to do just about anything. So I’m wondering where that inability to do anything else except answering a call on his smartphone comes from.

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     Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-Mar-2023 16:21:56 JST Patrick V. ????

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     ? 5/7 - Is it fear of technology? Of breaking things he wouldn't be able to fix? Does he simply not want to learn because he doesn't understand it and therefore has decided that it's “not for him”? Is he scared of looking stupid in the eyes of me or other family members?
     I genuinely don't know, but after 2+ years of trying, both myself and my family have simply given up on teaching him anything more about it. He either refuses to take it in, or he’s genuinly incapable of it. I don’t know.

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     Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-Mar-2023 16:21:57 JST Patrick V. ????

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     ? 2/7 - It’s me who has to call him, because he still doesn't know how to call me. I usually have to retry the call a few times because more often than not he fumbles the tap gesture to answer the call. I can't send him pictures, because he doesn't know how to look at them despite my family teaching him over and over again. I can't send messages to him because he doesn't know how to read them. And even if he could, he seems incapable of using the touch keyboard to send an answer.

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     Patrick V. ???? (patrick@sea-mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 04-Mar-2023 16:21:57 JST Patrick V. ????

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     ? 3/7 - When I gave him the phone I dumbed it down as much as I could, and the whole family has repeatedly tried to teach him how to make even basic use of its functions. How to look at a picture, how to respond to a message, how to even know he has a message, very simple stuff like that. But he simply does not seem to take it in.