Tuesday, June 28, 2011

So yesterday afternoon, I asked my Mom if she could send me the directions to the condo that she had typed up a few years ago. I wanted to give them to my friend Daniel so he would know how to get down there (Gulf Shores, Alabama) in case he didn’t follow my wife and I on Saturday.

She originally told me that she’d just give the directions to me on Friday when we stop by for an overnight visit. I told Mom that I’d rather send it to Daniel because I’m not sure if we’ll see them Friday night.

Mom: Can I fax it to you?
Me: Do you have a digital copy?
Mom: I don’t know.
Me: Don’t you have it typed up somewhere?
Mom: Yes.
Me: Then just send me the file.
Mom: I don’t know if I know how to do that.
Me: Is the file on your computer?
Mom: Yes.
Me: Then you can either open the file, do a Select All then Copy and Paste it into an email and send it to me.
Mom: Oh, I can do that?
Me: Yes. Or, you can attach the file to an email and send it to me that way.
Mom: Oh, I may have to get someone to help me.

My initial thought to that conversation was “Wow, how long has it been since I’ve received a fax?” and it quickly shifted to “Do we even have a fax machine at work anymore?”

Well, this morning thanks to “Mr. Donnie, the computer expert” I received the file from Mom. Unfortunately I couldn’t initially open it because it was in Microsoft Works. Yes, it is supposed to say WORKS, not Word.

I wasn’t sure if Works was even being made anymore and sure enough, it was discontinued back in 2008. So Mom’s working with software that’s 3 years old, at minimum. But considering that she didn’t know how to attach a file or copy the text into an email, I highly doubt she’s kept up with the Works upgrades over the years.

I guess I just assumed that since she knows about email (she refused to get the internet in her house for years), does the accounting/payroll/books for their grocery store and learned how to text from her phone last year that she’d know some of the “advanced” ways of using the modern tools of today.

But if I look at it from the opposite angle, it’s possible that some of the 8-year old website designers out there might not know how to work a fax machine. Then again, they prolly would rather be forced to only use HTML coding than use a fax.