A few years ago I gave my Mum an iPad for Mother’s Day. I must admit she wasn’t overly excited. My Mum never used computers throughout her life and the one she did end up buying five or six years ago didn’t see much use.
What a difference a few years makes. When Mum and Dad were visiting last year we picked them up from the caravan park and were heading out for the day when I was asked to turn around and go back, you see my Mum had left her iPad behind.
A product that she was barely interested in when given to her as a gift had become an indispensable tool that she liked to have with her. What had changed?
Now before you think that her son gives iPad Lessons for a living, she didn’t want them and besides, Mum and Dad at that stage lived in Sydney, so it wasn’t as though I could call around to help. If Mum was going to use an iPad she wanted to figure it out for herself and that she did!
Of course Mum says she doesn’t use the iPad that often, an opinion that Dad doesn’t share… a message I received from Dad said “Mum doesn’t use the iPad very often, except for reading books, shopping, playing games, sending messages, Facetime, checking out facebook, Googling, finding recipes – apart from that not much!”
I had to laugh!
What really impressed me was Mum reading books on the iPad. Mum and Dad’s house is full of books so I didn’t think Mum would give them up in favour of the iPad.
However Mum pointed out “Sometimes I pick up books where the printed text is so small I just put it back on the shelf. With the iPad I can make the text size whatever size I want and I can be carrying around dozens of books at a time.”
She also said that if she ever runs out of anything to read she can download a new book in around 20 seconds.
You don’t have to convince me Mum!