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I know the feeling. My mother's approach to computing is infuriating: If she would just READ the often perfectly simple message on the screen she could solve 90

I know the feeling. My mother's approach to computing is infuriating: If she would just READ the often perfectly simple message on the screen she could solve 90% of her problems. For the same reason as your parents ending up with Windows 10 my mother managed to install the pay-version of the free anti-virus software I had installed - when it asked here if she wanted to upgrade to the non-free version she clicked on "Yes" and then didn't dare to cancel the process... It seems that in some people anything unexpected happening on the screen causes some of their inhibitory neurons to fire action potentials (only 10% of neurons in the brain, but an inhibitory signal has a much stronger effect than an excitatory one) - blocking entire brain circuits from contributing their output. It's probably an ancient fear response. So the best solution isn't to educate them - that's mostly unnecessary, since their intellectual capacity is not really the problem. One would have to get them to relax, so that unexpected things happening on their computer screen don't trigger the blocking of all reason.

joosters 10y ago
One other difficult problem I find with my parents, and with others of a similar age, is trying to persuade them to experiment with using their computer. They often find some convoluted way of doing something and stick with it. For example, for a long time my Mum would return to google's homepage by quitting and restarting firefox. I had to explain how the home & back buttons worked several times. My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program (or even realise that they were buttons that could be pressed). Again, it's not stupidity, but just uncertainty and their fear of breaking the computer if they do the wrong thing. Giving a tablet as a present for my parents was a big help here. The biggest ease of use has been that I have persuaded them that there is just about nothing that they can accidentally break on it, and if they ever reach something confusing, then pressing the only button on the front will always take them back to a recognisable place.
- ourmandave 10y ago
  My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program... That's because it might force upgrade to Windows 10 if they hit the wrong button.

joosters 10y ago

One other difficult problem I find with my parents, and with others of a similar age, is trying to persuade them to experiment with using their computer. They often find some convoluted way of doing something and stick with it. For example, for a long time my Mum would return to google's homepage by quitting and restarting firefox. I had to explain how the home & back buttons worked several times. My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program (or even realise that they were buttons that could be pressed). Again, it's not stupidity, but just uncertainty and their fear of breaking the computer if they do the wrong thing. Giving a tablet as a present for my parents was a big help here. The biggest ease of use has been that I have persuaded them that there is just about nothing that they can accidentally break on it, and if they ever reach something confusing, then pressing the only button on the front will always take them back to a recognisable place.

ourmandave 10y ago
My parents were afraid to even try pressing unfamiliar icons in a program... That's because it might force upgrade to Windows 10 if they hit the wrong button.