The family had been at you for months. It’s amazing, they said. It takes fantastic photos, they said. We can keep in touch on Facebook, they said. You can listen to music, access the knowledge of the entire world, and it’s so easy – all delivered with the cheerful confidence of people who grew up with a screen in their hand.
Your son promised you’d love it. Your daughter said it would change your life. Your twelve-year-old grandson – bless him – informed you that ‘you could play video games on it, Nana.’
So for your birthday, they bought you a brand new smartphone – slim, shiny, and looking terrifyingly expensive. It sits on the table.
You look at it quietly for weeks. Then your grandson comes to visit. He opens the box and gets to work. Within the hour, he has downloaded every app you’ll ever need, set up your passwords and email address, and carefully explained how everything works. Simple enough; except the button is on the side now, not the top, and pressing it too long does something entirely different. Pressing it twice does something else again. Before you know it, you’ve accidentally called someone in your contacts listed as DO NOT ANSWER.
Your new phone, it turns out, has a mind of its own. It will beep when you receive a message, buzz when someone likes something, chime when you have an appointment, and vibrate mysteriously for reasons you will never fully understand.
You Accidentally Do Something
You were simply trying to check the weather.
Now the screen is upside down, your text is enormous, your camera has applied a filter that gives you dog ears, and your phone is speaking to you in a calm robotic voice like it is possessed by an alien from another dimension. This is normal. This happens to everyone.
Here’s the Good News
You don’t have to wait for the family to visit, and you don’t have to figure any of this out alone. SeniorNet is a wonderful New Zealand organisation run by volunteers – patient, knowledgeable, and genuinely enthusiastic about helping older adults get comfortable with technology. SeniorNet tutors can sit with you one-on-one or in small groups and walk you through setting up your new phone from scratch – contacts, email, photos, apps, video calls, the lot. They also help with computers and tablets, so if your laptop has been “acting funny” since 2019, they can help with that too. No question is too basic. No mishap is too spectacular. (They also promise not to laugh when you ask about a left-handed mouse.)
Give SeniorNet a ring. Their tutors will show you how to use your device with confidence, so you can connect with your family, navigate a world that runs on smartphones, and – who knows – maybe challenge your grandson to a video game after all.
Whitianga SeniorNet is located in Room 9 at the Social Services Centre, 2 Cook Drive, every Wednesday from 10am to 4pm. You can book a one-hour or two-hour session for one-on-one tuition. Bring your own device and the tutors will walk you through everything it can do – at your pace, in plain English.
Fees:
• Annual membership: $25, One-hour session: $8; Two-hour session: $10
To book or make an enquiry, contact Carol on 021 022 62504.
