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Not trying to be a jerk. Why give him an iPhone? A dumb phone is less risky and can still do text and calls. It's also easier to use, especially for elderly. F

Not trying to be a jerk. Why give him an iPhone? A dumb phone is less risky and can still do text and calls. It's also easier to use, especially for elderly. For email: could you maybe handle his email for him? I dunno how much he uses email. I would set him up with a credit card with a provider that can generate temporary numbers. Or just have multiple accounts; one is a very low limit, another higher. Keep cash in one or two different bank acts, one of them just enough to pay bills. Some wifi routers have parental controls (lol, the irony) that let you whitelist URLs. I would whitelist the common websites he uses and block all others. I'm actually totally on board with his anger towards tech. If I didn't do tech as a living I would eliminate all my internet connections. It is just a distraction. There is so much more to life.

baggsie 4y ago
> Not trying to be a jerk. Why give him an iPhone? A dumb phone is less risky and can still do text and calls. It's also easier to use, especially for elderly. Personally for facetime - my dad finds it easier to communicate (he is in the early stages of dementia), to track his position and so he can use apple pay (he always forgets his wallet).
sickcodebruh 4y ago
This is a reasonable question. It gives him a connection to the world. He spends a lot of time watching YouTube videos about art and music techniques but he’s much more comfortable using his phone than computer. He’s been casually teaching himself Danish for a few years using Duolingo, also on the phone. He takes a lot of photos when he’s out, usually trees so he can study them for paintings or drawings. My mom died about ten years ago and he lives by himself in a sleepy neighborhood. He’s in an apartment building and his neighbors check in on him but he tells me that if I didn’t call daily, he could go a week without talking to another person. A dumb phone could do this but we FaceTime nightly so he and my daughter can talk. He frequently looks at photos and videos of his granddaughter. He loves getting updates about her and goes back through his archives frequently. He goes for long walks to the grocery store or to run errands. I think he’s started using Maps on his phone. I enabled location sharing so I can see where he has a habit of walking too far on too hot days with too little water, so I worry. His hearing aids (Starkey Evolv AI, I think?) connect to his phone. He can control them from the app. This is also a constant source of frustration but he’s gradually getting better with them. Most of these things could be done with single-purpose devices but that would be more complexity, more things to carry, charge, lose, break, etc,… He likes his phone. It helps him feel independent and connected. I do wish there was a more scaled back version of the iPhone that was friendlier for the tech-averse, something closer to an Apple-improved dumb phone. He’s using an iPhone 8 Max now and if we had to replace it, we’d be forced to go to the smaller iPhone SE because there’s no way in hell that the buttonless iPhone would ever work for him. The tech keeps changing and he really needs stability and simplicity.

baggsie 4y ago

> Not trying to be a jerk. Why give him an iPhone? A dumb phone is less risky and can still do text and calls. It's also easier to use, especially for elderly. Personally for facetime - my dad finds it easier to communicate (he is in the early stages of dementia), to track his position and so he can use apple pay (he always forgets his wallet).

sickcodebruh 4y ago

This is a reasonable question. It gives him a connection to the world. He spends a lot of time watching YouTube videos about art and music techniques but he’s much more comfortable using his phone than computer. He’s been casually teaching himself Danish for a few years using Duolingo, also on the phone. He takes a lot of photos when he’s out, usually trees so he can study them for paintings or drawings. My mom died about ten years ago and he lives by himself in a sleepy neighborhood. He’s in an apartment building and his neighbors check in on him but he tells me that if I didn’t call daily, he could go a week without talking to another person. A dumb phone could do this but we FaceTime nightly so he and my daughter can talk. He frequently looks at photos and videos of his granddaughter. He loves getting updates about her and goes back through his archives frequently. He goes for long walks to the grocery store or to run errands. I think he’s started using Maps on his phone. I enabled location sharing so I can see where he has a habit of walking too far on too hot days with too little water, so I worry. His hearing aids (Starkey Evolv AI, I think?) connect to his phone. He can control them from the app. This is also a constant source of frustration but he’s gradually getting better with them. Most of these things could be done with single-purpose devices but that would be more complexity, more things to carry, charge, lose, break, etc,… He likes his phone. It helps him feel independent and connected. I do wish there was a more scaled back version of the iPhone that was friendlier for the tech-averse, something closer to an Apple-improved dumb phone. He’s using an iPhone 8 Max now and if we had to replace it, we’d be forced to go to the smaller iPhone SE because there’s no way in hell that the buttonless iPhone would ever work for him. The tech keeps changing and he really needs stability and simplicity.