Fun & Famous
HOW CERTAIN mobile ACTS can give away YOUR AGE
No matter how good you are with your phone or Facebook or Whatsapp, there are certain mobile acts that always betray your age when you’re a bit older. Which isn’t crazy, might I add. I mean, us twenty-somethings or younger pretty much grew up with cellular devices, whereas anyone above the age of 40 did just the opposite. So image what it’s like for anyone above the age of 60. I think it can be charming, sometimes a tad annoying, but definitely very funny.
Typing a message
This is always done with one, sometimes two, fingers. My dad even used to put his phone on the table at the start of his iPhone career and used his two index fingers to type. And my god, it took an eternity for him to write. The one thing that older people definitely don’t have down is typing quick messages so if you’re on Whatsapp, you’ll probably see “is typing” for at least half an hour with the only outcome being “hey how’s it going?”. HOW the heck can that take you so long?!
Taking a photo
It takes me about a second or so to take a picture. It takes older people forever and a day to even find the camera app on their phone and then they’re hopeless when it comes to using the button to take the photo. As in: either they’ll press the button for too long and make a burst or they won’t press it at all and so nothing happens. Once when I was abroad I even had an elderly man press my phone up against his face because he didn’t understand he needed to look at the screen. How adorable.
A detour
It can drive me insane watching how unwieldily some people use their phones. You can turn on your camera app with just one swipe from the home screen but for some reason older people haven’t figured this out yet. And switching to different apps is still somewhat confusing and they always go back to the home screen first before opening another. Seriously guys, short cuts have been made for a reason.
Anything voicemail related
If the topic of voicemails ever comes up in a conversation you can bet the words ‘answering machine’ are going to be brought up. What self respecting millennial still uses a voicemail in today’s day and age? I mean come on, just send me a Whatsapp.
Phone conversations
Older people have the tendency to communicate as though the phone connection is close to dead. As in: they always yell. And start their conversations as such: “HELLO, YEAH HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME?”
Terminology
Abbreviations and slang. My goodness. Do yourself a favor and just type them out for them.
Multitasking
Not an option. When my dad strolls down the street and he gets a message, then he stops walking to read and reply to the message. He stops. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. The whole concept of using the speaker mode to communicate so you can continue doing whatever you were doing, seems like a concept a senior brain will never fully understand.
