My Mom and Our First PC

I decided to just talk to my mom about what it was like for her when she bought our first home computer. She explained to me how it took a lot for her to even buy one for the house. She knew little to nothing about computers and she had no idea what type of computer would be best to buy, how to put internet on it, or how to even work it at all. She knew that we really needed to get one for the house however, because I would talk about them all the time as a kid when I would come home from school and I was taking a computer class in elementary school where I was learning how to type and it would be better for me to practice at home.

Initially, at that age, I was just asking for the computer for the games and that was mostly what I used it for until she finally figured out how to put internet on it. She mentioned how even setting up the computer was a difficult process. She wanted to have the computer all set up and gift wrapped so I can open it as one of my presents for Christmas. She set up the desk and that was the easy part for her, but the computer just seemed so complicated and foreign that she just gave up and asked my sisters to do it. She said it was all worth it when she saw the joy in my face when I unwrapped the computer on Christmas day and played all of my little Barbie computer games. She knew that the worst was yet to come however because soon I would want to get on the internet, and that would be yet another thing she had to figure out. It took about three years before she could properly figure out how to put internet on the computer. She started off with AOL but she hated me using it because people would always call the house or she would want to get on the phone.

Eventually I stopped getting on the computer because the internet was too slow, and I couldn't get on for a long time anyway, and she was worried about that because she bought the computer for me. She did not really use it much, she felt no use for it, and she wasn't into the buttons and gadgets and widgets or whatever it was. So she figured out how to get internet on the computer through the cable company and on again I went. She didn't start to use the computer until I was at the end of my Middle School years because things were starting to become digitized and she couldn't avoid it. She asked me mostly how to work it, or I would have to be right by her side helping her finish whatever task she had to do. Today however she is a little use computers, but still she has some struggles. Like using Skype for her is like the world’s longest math problem to her.  This is all interesting to hear from her because it just showed me how much of a real digital immigrant she was, and it just reminded me of how frustrated I would get with her. I did not realize how big of a transition it would be to use a computer until I began taking this course, along with my other FIG classes, so I appreciate where she is coming from a lot more now.