I was browsing Chris Brogan’s 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write and no. 23 “My Mother is on Facebook” was just too delicious to pass up. Actually, my mother is on Facebook. She also uses Gmail and MSN Messenger, she has her own account on Flickr and she knows how to comment on blogs.
Like a lot of people who did not grow up with gadgets or the web, my mother never wanted to use computers and the web. Me and my sister made various attempts to get her online and each time we failed miserably until we realised the simple truth: What my mother lacked was motivation. As active bloggers and web surfers we have the tendency to think that the whole world knows what we are talking about. This is not so (take a note to self: “remember to get out of the bubble from time to time”). Wouldn’t it be great if we could get our parents and friends to check out our online pics instead of having to print them and mail them to them? If nothing else, think of all the little trees and electricity and post office van’s carbon emissions you are helping the world avoid.
How to fail when trying to get people online
There are two sure ways to fail spectacularly when you are trying to motivate people to go online.
- Talk about the technology:Go ahead. Talk to them about hard drives, monitors, DSL, ADSL, cable, Wi-Fi, download speeds and watch them take on that look of hypnotised tiredness. What you are saying makes no sense to them and by the time you have explained it they have lost all interest.
- Talk about things that don’t rock their world:Talk about the political power of the web, how connections are made, how reputations are managed, how knowledge is spread, how collaboration is happening across the world. You know all that stuff that us (?) visionaries and early adopters love to go on and on about. It’s all very well and good among us but it doesn’t mean anything to people who are new to this. Plus, with all this grand talk, you’re possibly scaring them off.
How to convince people to get online
If you’ve done the two things above with people you know then this will sound familiar: You fail utterly. So here are some things that worked for us when trying to get our mother online.
- Set it all up for them first:Don’t get a company technician to do it, do it yourself. Set up their internet connection and put a useful icon on their desktop. No they will not remember to go Start> Programs etc. to find it themselves. No they will not remember their password (so make sure you do).
- Find out what rocks their world in real-life: Is it cooking? Decorating? The arts? Holidays? Find out what it is and then show them web resources that are relevant. Our mother loves jewellery and crafts so the moment we showed her online pictures and ideas for projects and how-to videos she was hooked.
- Set up their bookmarks: Not on web-based services. On their browser. There is no way they will remember to log onto delicious to get to their bookmarks. Include their e-mail, your online photo album and blog, their favourite newspaper and all the websites that include things interesting to them (see above).
- Then, show them how it works: Don’t show them before. Show them the steps after they are hooked – we are talking Sales 101 here. Show them the benefit, then how to do it.
- (In desperate circumstances) Move out of the country:OK, fine, don’t move out of the country for this. But if you happen to actually move away (we are talking minimum 3 hour flight away, not the same city) you will be amazed at how quickly parents catch up. Being away is the mother of all motivations. They want to hear you and see you, and read what you are writing, and see your pictures, and share a bit of your world.
- (Above all) Give them a break: Remember when you first started using a computer or the first time you went online? Remember – you think binary and they don’t (yet).
Very good article Sofia
I'll try it on my mother this Xmas! hehe