My Mom – The True Test of My Abilities as a Technical Communicator
As a technical communicator I’m sometimes stuck with situations that I can’t handle.
Example…
I have a smart mom. She is approaching 80 God bless her yet she is on the Internet. I really admire her tenacity and her lack of techno-phobia. Although she does not have a college degree, she did what millions of her peers failed to do: she joined the “cyber revolution” with great gusto. She is online every day whole day, sending me emails and forwarding everything that catches her fancy. I salute her and hope to be an equally agile elderly when I’m her age.
Yet there’s a problem with all that: my mom is proof positive that I’m perhaps not as good a technical communicator as I fancy I am. Why?
My Failure as a Technical Communicator…
Because I fail to communicate to my mother the difference between a Browser and the Internet, among other things. It’s really not easy and I know it’s not her problem; it’s my problem.
Think about it… how would you explain what Internet is, what a server-client architecture is, or how a browser works to an eighty year old lady who first started to use a computer four years ago?
I tried to use the good-old “highway and traffic” analogy and it worked for a while.
I said “mom, think of the Internet as the Highway, and the browser as a car. There is one highway [which of course is not strictly true] but many different types of cars. So what you call “E” [Internet Explorer] is just a car brand. The “Fox” [as my mom refers to the Firefox] is yet another car brand. So it really does not matter which car you take for a spin on the highway as long as the highway is open.”
This was all after her complaint that she could not reach her favorite web sites since “The E” was shut down for forgetting to pay her monthly Internet account fee. I tried to explain to her that “The E” would never shut down since it’s “a car” but her Internet access would since it is “The Highway.”
She said she’s got it but the next day I received another e-mail about how her Fox was again “shut down” due to the same billing problem. It’s all taken care of now and I’m happy to report that my mom is back online both with E and the Fox.
The Question Remains
Yet the question remains: how can we explain how all this complicated gadgetry works to someone like my mother who is smart but does not have the background to understand what a “server” is, or what kind of a “language” “HTML” is? I find that a fascinating challenge and will continue to work on it with all the creative analogies I can find.
Are you faced with similar challenges in your daily life as a technical communicator? What are your strategies and suggestions? Please feel free to share…
I have a similar challenge. My mom is also on the web. I’m afraid I need to learn to have more patience when expaining concepts and tasks. I salute everyone who faces instructing their parents on new technologiies.
This was a very nice post Ugur! I understand what you are saying about how our explanation must reach the very basic users – good point but not easy to do, nevertheless!
Kudos to your mom!
Ben and Sameera, thanks for the feedback. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure visual aids and illustrations (like a flowchart, Captivate clips, etc.) would be more useful to explain IT concepts to an audience without any tech background. But then, that also takes more time to create whereas words are easier to put together… It’s a pleasant challenge. Ugur
You’re so right – our non-techie family members are perfect tests for our skills. I failed with my late parents, but I’m doing somewhat OK with my 84-year-old uncle. For my mom, I had written out detailed instructions for the tasks that she wanted to perform. My dad coped fairly on his own. For both my mom and dad, it was a question of interest. Dad used it only for email. Nothing else caught his fancy. My mom would watch a news program and want to follow up on the internet (because the news programs often gave follow-up URLs), but she could never figure it out and wasn’t driven enough to try.
My uncle uses it for tracking the family tree and for keeping in touch with his daughter and granddaughter who live in another country. He has a purpose and a drive.
I think this is the first step. “We” think everyone must use the computer and the internet, but what if they don’t want to do so? As official forms and contacts become online-only, some are forced to take the leap. The reluctant may enlist a relative to help with those “unpleasant” tasks. So… I say it is the mindset that needs to be worked on. How can we show them it is fun? I think people-interaction is the best way. It may be more time-consuming, but it should work. Here is one example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOl67clzTTQ
Helping relatives like this is such excellent training. Many joke about it, but if you step back and look at the actual situation, you will find a gold-mine of lessons for you as a technical communicator. I know I have!
Karen, thank you for your thoughtful comment. I appreciate it. I’m glad you agree that helping our relatives understand how the Internet and web sites work is excellent training for all tech communicators. Take care. Ugur