Technology & the elderly

There are a few things in life the simply do not mix. Water and electricity, fuel and fire and technology and the elderly.





Yesterday I managed to explain to my grandmother about the digital switchover in which by 2012, any un-upgraded TV set will cease to work. After which, I managed to get her a Freeview box so that she'd be ready by the time Emley Moor's analogue transmitter gets switched off in 2011.

That's still four years away yet but given the huge supply of cheap digital tuners that my firm have managed to get hold of, and the previous track-record of the electrical industry to be able to anticipate demand a key periods, I decided to take advantage of the current over-supply of Freeview recievers.

And yesterday I set it all up, explained how it worked and explained how it would make her life better, mainly because all those god-awful soaps are repeated ad-finatum on ITV2, 3 and 4.

She managed to get the jist of it fairly well, but the morning was more focused on how she should turn the thing off, rather than actually using it.

"Well I'll turn it off for now and use my normal tele, just until I get used to it."
"But you won't get used to it if you don't use it."
"I'll manage but I stick to my normal telly now, how do I turn it off again?"
"Just make sure that red light is on"
"So the red light is good then?"
"No, the red light means it's switched off"
"Yes, I know"
"But if it's switched off, you can't use it"
"Oh........"

I know full-well she won't use it, but at least I tried.