Are your relatives computer literate?
 

I just had to type a letter up in Microsoft Word for my dad because he doesn't know how to work the computer, and it's rather frustrating to teach him for some reason I forgot.
My mom can use email and browse the web quite frequently but is still at the level where she is susceptible to pop-up ads and possibly dangerous files.

So my question is as the topic title states.

Do grandma or grandpa like to chat or go to msg boards?
Are your siblings oblivious to how to work that power button?

I'm curious to see who other than you is up to date with computers, and whether you are the most literate of your families (you're reading this so you must know how to use msg boards/search at the bare minimum).

My immediate family is all relatively computer literate. That is, they all use it for typing and e-mail and solitaire, but they wouldn't be able to do anything beyond basic things like that. Once you start speaking about hardware or specs you've pretty much lost them. I think I'm the most computer literate person in my family, with the exception of my uncle.

I am now the only person in my household with a working computer as of now due to viruses and spyware, my dad deleted his network adapters drivers... sigh

My brother and I hare both very computer literate. My sister is not so much, but she's learning (though it's understandable, she is only 11).

My parents both don't know much, though my dad can at least turn the computer on, use the internet a small bit, and use Word well enough.

No one in my family is even close to being as 'computer literate' as I am. I know my way around my PC and am proficient and knowledgable in its basic functions, but thats as far as it goes. I don't think I classify as anything beyond slightly computer literate.

I would have to say my entire immediate family is computer literate, and I tend to think that I'm more literate for online things. For example, from buying things online to getting around pop ups to downloading things.

My mom can do internet and some Microsoft typing software things. But beyond that she's lost.

The last time my dad touched a computer, it was a green-text black-screened Apple. And it was new at the time.

He's never touched a mouse. A computer mouse.

My oldest brother is quite a whiz at Apples. He works for Apple for Christ's sake. I use Windows and have nothing of Apple origin on this computer. He's helpful at times but at other times, he's as lost as if not moreso than me.

My older brother is about as knowledgeable as I am. He is gray in several areas where I'm familiar. And he knows some spots of knowledge that I don't (typically pertaining to emulation!)

I'm probably the most literate in my family, if you don't count my relatives (aunts and uncles). My sisters are pretty much as knowledgeable as your typical school girl. My brother knows how to program but less then me. My mom basically uses it only for Internet, email and msoffice but she really doesn't need to know more for what she does. Grandparents? they think the computer is the devil but my grandma spends most of her day infront of a television set

Me and my sister are probably the most computer literate people in our family, even counting extended family. My mom can do things like check her e-mail, browse the internet, and play Scrabble, but that'a about it. My Grandma doesn't use computers at all. My aunts know how to do things with computers, but not as much as me and my sister do. My uncle doesn't even have a computer, and neither do my cousins. So yeah, that's the extent of my family's computer know how.

If this thread had been posted a year ago, I would have been tempted to say that pretty much every single one of my relatives are downright awful when it comes to computers, but it seems the situation actually improved a bit lately!

My father's better than average, actually, he's been messing inside computers for a long time, before plug and play and the like existed, so he knows what he's doing most of the time. I think. What I'm not sure is if he's good when it comes to more "modern" threats such as spyware and other annoyances. I know he's smart enough not to fall for fake emails, especially the Nigerian scams; he's worked in Nigeria for 15 years and from what I've heard from him, he doesn't hold the locals in very high esteem, to say the least.

My sister is, well, she's pretty much your typical 14 years old, though she might spent more time on the computer than your average 14 years old. Unfortunately that doesn't means she knows much. I'd say she's average.

Until recently I would have classified my mother as a lost cause. While she's still far from being computer literate, she improved a bit, and actually uses her computer to do stuff such as pay bills online. Also, fortunately for me, she only browses a few, safe, websites and instantly deletes any email coming from someone she doesn't know. I also doubt she knows how to install anything, and usually calls me as soon as any dialog box she's never seen pops up. That pretty much keeps spyware out.

For the rest of my family, I have no idea.

My dad built our computer, so I'll say he's the most computer-literate. All my grandparents know how to use the Internet and so on fairly well. My little sister is technologically challenged, she has to have me help her use the remote for the TV.

I'm probably the only person in my family that knows more about computers than just turning them on, typing, and turning them off. I get called a lot to show people how to do stuff. The good thing is that they are willing to learn for themselves. However, sometimes they forget what they've learned.

I believe I'm the only "true" computer-literate person in my family. But like almost everyone else; my dad knows how to operate a computer. But the second something decides to stop working he will call me (or tech support if I'm not around.)
My sister has her own laptop. So she at least knows how fragile a computer can be. But she'll still ask me to install stuff she isn't too confident about ._.
My mom, well. She just doesn't touch computers. but she knows how to use a DVR box :tpg:.

My cousin, sister and I are the most computer literate in our family. My mom can browse and use the email but if I try to explain HTML or different file types to her or my father they get confused.

My maternal grandparents dont know a mac from a PC and my paternal grandparents only seem to use the computer for typing recipes and sending emails and even then they don't understand the finer details of PC use.

The most computer literate in my family would be me and my brother...my parents really don't deal with computers or electronics in general (call them old-fashioned)...but yea my dad finger-types and my mom can type (but not in home row)....My brother is the only one who can type in home row but I type just as fast as he does....meh, I guess we're not a very computer savvy but we're still literate!

My parents are not computer literate. I had to keep teaching my dad how to check his email and get on to Netscape. It's frustrating. Oh so very frustrating...

My mum double clicks links on the internet.

My mom is somewhat computer literate, but probably on the level of just knowing how to browse the internet, send email, real simple stuff. She went through training for a job and learned the whole Office Suite (Word, PP, Excel), but beyond that, I have no idea.

My father and brother are able to operate a computer with no problems. My mother doesn't usually need a computer, so if she's ever on one, there are certain programs that she asks me about. Microsoft Word and checking email are the only two areas that my parents focus on.

Nice thread. No my family is definitely not computer literate. My Mother and Grandmother think they are but they really have no idea what to do and run to me for help with every little thing.

Most computer questions can be answered by just reading the screen. People are quick to ask for help because they are too lazy to try to figure it out themselves. I feel bad when I don't help my family though, but how will they ever learn if they fix things for theirselves once in a while?

Father is. Mom isn't. Two cousins on my father's side are, three cousins on my mother's side is not as much, especially the two boys.

My mom would rather use a typewriter and white-out than to learn the convenience of the 'backspace' on a computer keyboard. The only thing she knows is how to press the photocopy button on our printer and turn the thing off. For me, my dad, and my siblings, we can't live without technology. I can't say the same though for my grandmother. She too busy climbing mountains back in the farm.

My mom has a degree in computers, don't know what exactly but she can do a lot in terms of actually working with a computer.

My brother does well enough but he tends to fail to realize that how certain things work at times and forgets to use the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.


I don't know about my other relatives, but my aunt doesn't know how to do anything with a computer aside from turning it on.

Father should be very computer literate, having used a computer from at least 1984 (a Spectrum, which was changed for a C64 a few months later, and then on to PCs and an iMac at work) but he's usually quite bewildered by technology. Sometimes when I tell him even just "Dad, save the attachments on the desktop..." he tells me "Er... save the attachments on the desktop... riiiight... how do you do that again?"
Me = ;_;.

I'm the most computer literate person in the house, and that means that every single PC problem gets dumped on me. Hell, I even found myself troubleshooting my friends' problems over MSN or the phone, and I hate it (not because I don't like helping people, but because usually nobody knows exactly what error messages they got and I have to try loads of different things to get to the root of the problem).

Hrr, no. Only my sister and I literate in computer. But my sister only use PC as typing tool. I dont call myself literate though, I dont understand about programming, webdesign, PHP database, graphic-savvyand such on.

But at least I always fix my computer myself, without bringing them to service center.

I think I can safely say I'm the most computer literate in my family. My younger brother is pretty proficient. My Dad can get on the computer to check sports scores and play games, but beyond that he usually needs help. My Mom doesn't use the computer at all. It takes a lot of work trying to explain how to do something :)

I really do think that my dad can learn, but my mom is afraid that if she pushes the wrong button the computer will blow up.

In my family, me and my brother are computer literate, him easily more so than me. I know enough to get simple things done. Relatives of the same generation as I usually know how to work a computer.

Yes. I could imagine it clearly. My sis and some of my friends also thought that microsoft planted bomb and self-destructing system in their OS.

My mom has gotten...errr...better at using the computer. She still doesn't quite understand the benefits of tabbed browsing in FireFox, and gets frustrated easily, but at least she can do her online banking and make airplane reservations and such.

My uncle though, he's a computer genius -- literally. He's the only person in his company that's a computer engineer without any formal education; he just went down to Silicon valley in the early 80s and went from there. I call him if I have problems with my computer.

And my grandma. Yeah, she's afraid of crashing the computer. She won't even go in the room it's in.

in my immediate family, i'm the most computer literate, next is my sister who can do simple things like use MS Word, install/uninstall programs, play a few games and browse the internet using IE.

my parents and gran on the other hand, have no knowledge whatsoever, they think they only way to turn off a computer/laptop is to pull out the plug, they are also unable to tell the difference between me working on a computer and playing games X.x;;;

with the rest of my family, it's usually the guys who are more computer literate though it's in different areas; one cousin is more proficient is graphic design, another just knows about requirements for gaming, another about computer architecture. the parents just tend to stay out of it.

No, they are not. They cannot even press the power button without my help.

My Dad thinks something is wrong when he presses something and it doesn't work in the next second. He doesn't believe in trail and error, by using the programme and seeing what it can do he just asks me if it's capable of doing it and if so, how so.

My Mum is ok, she tends to try and work at something if it's all going wrong but at the end of the day she doesn't know that much.

Ah yes, that reminds me how I try to fool my dad into thinking the computer is off by simply turning off the monitor. >=)

For the longest time only dad, my uncle, and I were very computer literate, but now the others are catching on.

Most of my family can type out letters it might be one finger that they use to type but they get there in the end. They can just about manage to surf the Net and send e-mails, anything more advanced than this and they call for my help.

My Grandpa is bad enough to not even know how to use a cellphone!! I literally had to teach him how to shut down his computer, and turn it on...I sent him a text message the day he got his cellphone just to servely confuse him, and it worked!

My parents are a mixed bag.

When we got our first computer in 1995, my uncle showed my folks how to use Windows 95 and several nice things to know about computers. Then they instructed my sister and I on how to use it.

Currently, my father is rather braindead when it comes to the computer. In fact, I believe he's used my mum's laptop less than ten times in the two years she's had it. He's a police officer with very shoddy typing speeds (but I don't hold it against him), and computers aren't the least bit fancy like they are in movies and such. He just knows how to use Internet Explorer and to type reports. All he really needs, but he even infuriates my mother with questions. Typically, we'd just do for him whatever he needed, like burn CDs and such.

My mother, on the other hand, is rather weird. She showed me how to use Windows at a time where the only computers I'd ever used were Apple IIs, Macintoshes, and these clunker IBMs that only ran on DOS. She even showed me how to do all the neat shortcuts like copy and paste and what the Tab key was for. These days, I'll get a phone call asking about how to use Windows Media Player, even though she could just stick with the simple CD Player programme that's been there since 95. That and many other common questions unknowing parents ask. However! She is familiar with FIrefox and does prefer it to IE, though she gets frustrated when she can't just click on an e-mail address on a website and can't send an e-mail that way. Regardless of my explaining that she uses a web browser based e-mail account with our ISP, mind you. I need to get her to setup Thunderbird so she won't have to deal with that problem anymore.

In my immediate family, I suppose my brother is half as literate as I am. He mostly sits on the computer and plays with GarageBand, but he knows how to type up reports, etc. He's got an Apple, though. We've got a PC. I haven't used an Apple since 6th grade.

My parents can turn the computer on, that's a start. My mom uses a computer at work, mostly uses Excel but she doesn't know what any of the buttons do and she only inputs text. Her biggest accomplishment is changing her desktop image a million times in a week...but she's fairly quick at typing, she can use Google, but I almost always have to come and redefine her searches, and I'm teaching her how to use Limewire. She knows how to burn her own CDs with WMP (easiest program for her to use). I'm thinking I might take my old computer class pamphlet with all the tutorials for MS Office and give her assignments to do so so she can learn what all the functions are in Excel.

My dad types with his index fingers and it takes him about half an hour to type up 3 complete sentences. But I chalk that up to him not being good with words in general. There is a cardboard box next to the computer and I can see several of his scribblings where he attmepts to work out how to spell words ("buisness," "bisuness," etc.) instead of using spell check features. Apparently he can use the internet only to book vacations and waste all our money on eBay, but I always have to proofread everything he writes.

I do everything else, I set up the computer, I take it apart and clean it, I maintain it, I install/uninstall things, yadda yadda yadda...but even with all that, I'm pretty basic in my knowledge. I still cannot figure out what the fuck a NAT problem is and why I can't get rid of it for Azureus. The Azureus wiki FAQ is like Latin to me.

I don't know anything about the rest of my family. I assume that my closest cousins are fairly literate, about as much as I am. One of my uncles is great with computers, though. He was the very first of all of us to have one, I remember playing Doom and ...I think Wheel of Fortune on his computer when I was in elementary school.

My dad uses the computer for e-mail, managing financials, downloading, web, and backing up DVDs. My mom just uses it for shopping and e-mail. My brother uses it as I would, but add more time AIM. I doubt my grandparents know. And most of my uncles and aunts I think get around. One of my cousins, 6 years old, is pretty computer literate. It's insane.

Other than my mom, not really. I always get asked for help and quite frankly I get sick when I have to help my sister, because she is going to be a senior in highschool and still needs help with word!

I think there are only five people in my family who are computer literate. They build their own computers, rather than buying pre-made ones, and whenever I need to get something fixed, I go to them! Then, there are a couple people who know the basics. The rest of my relatives are as clueless as they get. "How do I use Google?" Actually, I was helping my uncle look something up once. As I was scrolling down the page, he said, "Stop scrolling up!" I then replied, "I'm scrolling down..." He said, "Well, the words are moving up." :tpg:

As for me--well, I'm not really computer literate, but that doesn't mean I can't solve minor issues. Because I tend to play around with things, I usually figure stuff out, but then again, I also figure out ways to somehow mess up the computer. :p As I once said during an electronics class, I don't make electronics. I destroy them! While I do know much more than a lot of my friends and acquaintances, it's nothing compared to most of the people here.

My uncles and aunts and their children are all really computer literate, probably because they have to be where they work. As for my immediate family, my brothers know more about computers and programs than I do, although I'm your average 18 year-old computer user. My mom knows next to nothing about computers and the internet aside from checking her email. My dad was much like her for a while, but in the past few months, he's been getting lessons from my older brother, and has since started using eMule, leeching torrents, and listening to oldies excessively on iTunes. -_-;;

My dad needs me to type the url in the search box. I dont think he knows the existance of google either.

(!) That's exactly what my dad said when I tried teaching him one time. I only realized the next day why he thought I was scrolling up. Moving from a webpage apart from clicking the links that are already on that particular webpage also seems to have impeded in his interest in learning about the internet.

None of my family and none of my neighbors are computer literate at all. At least not to the point to where I'd trust them alone with a computer for more than a couple weeks. A few I wouldn't trust a day with. I few I wouldn't trust within a mile of one.

Basically how it is is that I'm expected to fix anybody's computer problems (I've had people 10 miles away from where I live ask for a house call), and if something breaks, it's my fault.

It couldn't possibly be that they install every single piece of software they get their hands on.

It couldn't possibly be that they start messing around the BIOS because they want to think they are computer literate.

Nope, it was me. Nevermind I was 10 miles away and asleep at the time, it must have been ME.

Yeah, I'm bitter. I've started to make people fix their own problems under my guidance rather than just do it for them. It teaches them how to do things, and if it's still too complicated for them I drill it into them that they shouldn't try it again unless I'm here.

People just seem to think that since computers are so easy to use, and they just sit down and use it without even thinking, that they should just always work, no matter what you do with them.

You don't see that sort of attitude about CARS.

My little brother is computer literate, he knows enough about spyware/adware/viruses to delete them himself, can fix basic computer problems, etc.

It's a little harder to expain to my dad these things but he sticks to what I recommend him to use (Firefox, Adaware) so we haven't had too many problems.

My mom can hardly double click. I had to put my browser icon in the quick launch area so it could be accessed with one click. She only does online banking...

As for immediate family, only my generation can use the computer. I get called a lot to fix computer problems. They like to reformat whenever something goes wrong and then repeat the same mistakes again. My uncle thought his router was not working one time and plugged his modem to his computer directly without having any kind of firewall. And viruses flooded his computer. Gah.

Some of them. My grandparents don't know much, but they're very interested in getting a computer to use for internet browsing and E-mail. I'm showing them Apple's line of kit, figuring they'll be best served by an iBook.

My mother knows very little, but is self-aware of that and okay with it. She wants a box that works for internet, E-mail, and a few other things and isn't really interested beyond that.

Her husband, on the other hand, is the most obnoxiously ignorant shit-wit I've ever met. He'll posture and throw around technical terms in combinations that make no sense whatsoever, then try to justify his point of view because he understands the stock market, and programmers do what makes them money. Never mind that we were talking about open-source. I've finally gotten to the point that I've locked him out of the rest of the network at the firewall, he gets ports 80, 443, 25, and 110 for browsing and E-mail, and beyond that he's on his own. I'm sick to death of supporting his bullshit.

My dad tries damn hard to keep up and keep abreast of tech news, and while he shows some signs of just-not-quite-getting-it, he shocks me every now and again by talking about RAID configurations, dual-video setups, and other hardware tech. The one thing I find amusing/slightly frustrating is that he has a slight case of utilititis-an addiction to freeware tweaking utilities like those commonly reviewed on Cnet. He really doesn't need them. He's running an Athlon64 with a gig of RAM, but hell if he doesn't use them anyway. It's amusing, and I can at least have a good, engaging conversation with him about technology. He's interested in Linux as he hates the direction MSFT is taking Windows (Big Brother-ware stuff), but for whatever reason he hasn't taken the plunge just yet.

My brother knows what he needs to know to get by. He doesn't go out of his way to learn new shit, but when he has to (usually as a means of hacking in his online games), he learns frighteningly quickly. Example: I got a MIDI keyboard for the holidays and bought a book on Reason, trying to learn to use it. He borrowed the book for a week, and when he got it back to me, said "look what I did." The results were unbelievable. The kid got better with the app in a week than I did in 2 months. Granted he doesn't work 2 jobs at the same time as taking classes, and he has a natural inclination toward music, but still...scary.

My brother is much more computer literate than me. My Dad can use the internet and outlook express email, and my mom can use hotmail and ebay.

For my family, my elder and younger sis and I all can use the computer. I'm the most computer literate in the sense that I can solve technical problems with the computer and I understand things like advantages of using Firefox over IE. I can work Mac too but my sisters can't unfortunately.

My parents did have some basic computer training and they know more or less how to exercise some basic features. They only seem to like webpages though and the flurry of colours.

My grandma, no doubt about it, she's a computer idiot. She knows nuts about it and I don't blame her because she doesn't need it at all! She still likes her television. (:

My mum worked in an airline office during my childhood years and I've used the keyboard and mouse for the first time there. The funny thing is, since migrating to Australia and giving up on the job, she never touched the computer again.

My sisters and I are computer literate but the problem with me is I never had the heart to learn touch typing. General internet routines for people our age (email, chat, browse, downloading, banking) are part of our lives and it's always great to find out new skills to improve our everyday usage (such as shortcut keys, custom configurations, remote access etc).

Technology have changed a lot and I was most impressed when mum tried out my Compaq keyboard one day with her master typing skills - she used to type with mechanical typewriters in the 70's :)

It's a sad sad sad truth.

But alas, they are not. None of them are. Not even my 13 year old brother. tsk tsk.

My father knows how to boot the computer, log in to his profile, go on to internet exploder, and type something into the url bar to get the msn search bar to help him find what he wants.

My mother knows how to do all of the above except she actually knows how to google search with the google toolbar I installed and knows how to put URLs in the URL bar. she is capable of checking her email, downloading extensions from people she KNOWS, and working word processor software (OpenOffice FTW.)

pop ups and misc dangerous files are a non issue because I have automatic updates on their computer and told them to never click pop ups and download crap from places they don't trust, also they have antivirus/spyware software installed and they're behind a router, all of which I maintain with an iron fist.

My sister lives with her fiance who is a sysadmin, so needless to say, she's picked up on computers quite a bit and is more than literate enough even going so far as to play World of Warcraft

my brother and sister I are all computer literate, though in different ways.

My sister is a graphic designer, my brother is a computer engineer and I'm an electrical technologist.

My mother is a fairly typical user, i.e. not all that literate. My father is not as literate as her, basically using the computer just to pay bills.

I have an aunt who is a computer tech at a local college and an uncle out of town who does some web design.

I tend towards being a computer god. Never went to anything beyond high school, at least for not very long, but I've always landed awesome tech jobs, so win.

The computer is my bitch. It does what I want, when I want it to, and no more than that. I'm better off with more than one computer, ya de da, self proclaimed genius.

As for the rest of my family....my brother knows enough to not bother me, but he's got such a beast it's lol. Everyone else, I swear I have to lockdown systems to avoid them from being messed up. I give up on trying to teach things. Lost causes all around.

In my entire family, I'm the most computer literate. In Fact, I'm the only computer guy in my family. Everyone else knows how to use a computer (Except for the Grandparents on my Fathers Side) and knows how to get around, but they don't know what to do when their computer comes up with an error.

My mom uses computers all the time but my dad has no idea what to do with it. He's never really used one before.