Update: Everyone be sure to check out Val’s response, who gives a great insight on uncertainty
I have two parents over 50 years old who both use computers every day of their lives (just like me). My mom uses her 5 year old dell to write on Microsoft Word, check her AOL e-mail and goes on websites every now and then. My dad does the same, but also uses Quicken to manage finance and his personal practice.
Whenever I help them by fixing things or removing spyware, I always remind them how much better a mac is and how they would never have to deal with these problems if they get one. Usually, they ignore me, but sometimes they tell me to stop talking. If I push it and argue with them, they just get mad at me get even more defensive over their crappy PC’s. They say “My computer is perfectly fine, it will last me another 10 years” or “Macs are too complicated, I’m already used to PC’s.”
Why are these parents of mine so against Macs? Why is it so scary to them to even think of switching? I asked my dad why he won’t switch and this was his answer: “It is not worth changing, it does what I need it to do and it’s not worth learning all over again.”
“It does what I need it to do.” This is the meat of the answer. My parents have something in their mind that makes them so close minded and incurious to new technologies. They do not care for learning new things and finding out all the amazing things computers can do. That is the reason I love computers. The possibilities are endless and I love finding them all out. My parents couldn’t care less for that. They use computers for only just a few reasons, and that is all they will ever use it for.
They are also turned off to macs because the majority of old people are not tech savvy. If you think about it, most tech savvy people are 25 years old and below. These people started using computers when they were 6. My parents got their first computers 15 years ago! While i’ve lived with computers my whole life, they have not lived with them over 2/3rds of their lives. This is why I am open to new technologies and they are not. If I picked up a new computer, let’s say running linux, I could easily figure things out without reading a manuel. My parents couldn’t do a thing without help. If your parents are younger maybe 40 or younger, this probably will not be the case. They will also most likely be a lot easier to convince to switch.
I also think that there is no reason to force them to switch or to argue with them. The only people that can change their minds are people just as old as them who they know knows about computers. Even that is hard because they their pessimism is packed so hard into their heads.
This isn’t such a bad thing and I love them just as much, it’s just hard to watch them suffer with their horrible computers. Anyway, are your parents the same? Why or why not?
If you found this page useful, consider linking to it.
Simply copy and paste the code below into your web site!
May 26th, 2008 at 5:40 am
Well you hit the nail on the head, the reason is “It does what I need it to do.”.
The problem is, that is true until they get a spyware infection. The answer is ofcourse to refuse to help them with the spyware. If they are not willing to take your advice why should you waste your time to help them when their PCs die?
May 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Gabe,
Many folks are very uncomfortable with uncertainty. Lack of knowledge creates uncertainty that renders some folks immobile - until that uncertainty is removed with adequate information.
We’ve seen this at work on the web - especially in the web’s younger days.
In 1997, we developed a website that sold products for General Aviation complete with secure shopping cart (thanks to Gunther Bierznicks / Selena Sol). Every pilot knows what a pitot tube cover is and what a “For Sale” prop banner is. But what they were relatively unfamiliar with and definitely uncertain about was ordering those very familiar products online.
To help remove this uncertainty, we created large product photos, an About Us link, a strong guarantee, known shipping information, a privacy statement and a toll free number listed prominently on the site.
Why were they uncertain? They *knew* what the product was; they could go into just about any pilot shop in the country and get a pitot tube cover.
And general aviation, although worldwide, is a fairly small, close-knit community - so you might fool someone once, but you won’t stay in business long fooling more than one person (unless of course you’re a shady aircraft charter operator - they always seem to slide by until someone gets hurt or dies).
The uncertainty was created by the sales channel itself.
1. There is no face-to-face interaction in a physical building that you can return to for a refund.
2. There is no direct mail catalog that you’ve seen hundreds of times at the local airport.
3. You’ve never had to type in your credit card number before, sending it out into the ether with one click of the submit button.
This created lots of uncertainy. And because of this, greater effort had to be made to remove that uncertainty.
By the way, the best way, at that time at least, to remove uncertainty, was to have a toll free number (and, of course, answer the telephone).
Travel and Destination websites experienced the same phenomenon only the travel industry referred to it as “Visitor Uncertainty.” Until hotel property photos, room photos, destination photos and known itineraries were uploaded, the debate as to how to sell travel online raged.
All they really had to do was look at their own print brochures!
Now, you’ve framed this parental inertia in terms of age and the famous “Mac -vs- PC” debate. However, I must grant that the older I get, the more comfortable I am with old things that work!
I’m not so inclined to go out and get the latest and greatest shiny new thing that beckons. Why? Well, there is a conservation of energy that leads to a greater efficiency created by known processes.
In other words, I know how to get my email: I use process X. This process takes me five minutes and at every step along the way, I am now so totally familiar with every potential glitch in my known process, that I know how to handle those glitches without fear.
In your folks case, when they have an unforeseen glitch, they have you - to remove spyware!. But more importantly, they have you to remove the fear and uncertainty.
I’m also not so inclined to run out and part with my cash for the latest and greatest widget when I have an old and dented widget that works fine and does what I want it to do. How much more can that shiny new widget do and is the outlay of cash (and uncertainty) worth that greater functionality?
If I were hellbent on converting my folks over to Macs, I’d probably take note of the applications my ‘rents most. Let’s look at email…
And by the way, I’d target your Mom for this instead of your Dad. Your Dad sounds like my Husband and he’d have to wake up one morning having dreamt of something I’ve been telling him for years and shout, “Eureka! I’ve got the greatest idea… I’m gonna get a Mac!”
So, try this: be busy with something near your Mac but not actually AT your Mac. Call for your Mom. Ask her to check your email for you (’cos you are busy) and verbally walk her through it while you tinker with whatever you are busy with.
You might try that with uploading photos as well…
This will give her information (ie, this is how I get email, this is how I upload photos…) and it is not forced upon her with pressure (oh cripes! I bought a Mac now how do work this thing!).
Instead, she is helping you and you are walking her through it.
If you give it a shot, let me know how it goes!
Val
May 26th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Thanks for the great response Val, I’ll be sure to try that. Also, I am going to update the post to say to look for your comment.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Gabe:
I bought an iMac earlier this year. I liked it so much, I bought another for my wife. We both work at home, but have very different jobs for different companies.
Not too unusual, I expect, except I’m over 60 and a long time PC consultant and developer. (My wife is nearly my age, but won’t ever admit it.) I’ve also worked with Linux, UNIX, and a ton of other technologies along the way.
Currently, I use RDC, VMware Fusion, and Parallels for any necessary PC work, and have eliminated my 3 XP boxes and a Linux server in favor of the iMac. Actually, I did own a Mac (one of the very early ones) over 20 years ago, but found it quite limited at the time. I had not touched an Apple system during the period since, but when I took a good look around, I decided it was time to switch.
I still have XP on a notebook, which I plan on replacing with a MacBook Pro later this year for traveling. In the meantime, I spend at least 12 hours a day at the keyboard of my iMac–with no complaints. Even though my career started well before first Mac (or DOS system) was released, I’m not so stodgy that I can’t appreciate Apple’s well-designed offerings. Leopard–with full UNIX certification–in particular, influenced my decision. I’d been running virtualized systems for several years, so I was comfortable that I could take my XP and Win2K images over to the iMac and rid myself of a pile of aging (like me!) hardware.
It was the right decision.
My wife’s situation is a bit different. She runs her company’s Houston operation using primarily phone, fax, and e-mail services. She deals in lots of PDF files, spreadsheets and documents, and uses RDC to run accounting on a server in the main office in Canada–in short, nothing she really needed XP for at all!
A nice, shiny Penryn iMac with a 24″ display does the job quite well, and earned me a few points from her along the way. Even after 40 years of marriage, I still try and stay in the “plus” column for points.
So, my long-winded comment is simply this: old people will switch to Macs when presented with the right value proposition. The Mac/Leopard combination is a simple yet surprisingly elegant combination that provides a satisfying experience for any computer user, no matter of what age. Not all older folks are afraid of learning something new. Some of us actually enjoy the challenge.
Now, if I could just figure out Twitter…