JEFBOT.265_A Touch Sensitive
I’m sure a lot of you JEFbot readers have had the same experience of showing your parents a new gadget, toy or video game you were excited about, only to have them confused by its interface or purpose. And while today’s strip was based on my mom’s initial experience with the iPad, she was definitely more enthusiastic about it than Mombot here, and I’m sure will be using it like a pro in the near future. I did think she would take to navigating its UI more intuitively, but I’m sure the Apple testers didn’t have long fingernails like my mom does, or flip pages on their iBooks as fast as she seems to. I still haven’t had a chance to show my dad the iPad, but I’m holding out hope that he’ll take to it more enthusiastically than the laptop we got him a year or two ago, which sits on one of his shelves gathering dust.
I’m heading to Oregon this weekend for a wedding (congratulations, Mark and Breanna!) so forgive me if I don’t get to your comments or emails right away. This will be a test run for the iPad (I’m leaving my laptop at home. *gulp*), so if it doesn’t fare well – I’ll see you on Monday!
First?
yep! wow, i think the strip was up for less than a minute, Angela!
you get the spectacles of firstness for this feat:
*giggles* Thanks, Jeff.
I am a ninja! Mwahahahahaha!
OMG! My first “First”!
*happy dances*
Ahem. Now that’s out of the way…
Loved this! Very true to life. I think most of us have had similar experiences to this.
I, for one, have given up trying to show my family the subject of my latest geek-gasms. My step-sisters break it. My sister says it’s lame then “discovers” it a while later, proclaiming that it’s the best thing ever, but denies that I ever showed her. My step-dad can’t work it, gets annoyed and calls it stupid. My mother has no problem with it but can’t fathom my excitement.
It’s so much easier to just geek-out with my friends.
Enjoy the wedding!
i agree, Angela della Muerta: it’s way easier to geek out with other like-minded friends. every so often you’ll get a family member to share in your enthusiasm for geeky things (my mom loves her DS) but it’s more likely you’ll get a raised eyebrow or look of confusion.
thanks, the wedding was awesome!
I have a similar experience when I try and discuss the intricacies of why the newest FPS is SO COOL with my wife. Puzzle games, racing games… we’re in business, not so much with the FPS carnage.
puzzle games and racing games, 11TN!? unless you’re talkin’ Mario Kart and not something like Forza, that’s still way ahead of most wives, for sure. maybe Halo: Reach will change her mind. heheh. speaking of which, we gotta make time to play that together when it comes out.
My mother, I think, is the epitome of “stone age.” I gave her a new phone (my old one, actually) when I upgraded to a Droid, and she is still having problems. It has a touch sensitive keypad, similar to an iPod wheel, and she keeps pressing it like it’s a button, instead of tapping it. I definitely feel Jefbot’s pain here!
Maybe it’s just the definition of parents, that they will never be as excited as we are about such things as new technology!
heheh. i SOOOO want my mom and dad to get an iPhone or Android-based phone, Kate! their phones don’t have any touch sensitivity at all, just normal keypads, so i can see why it’s so confusing for them to get to any other functions besides making calls. i don’t think they’ve ever surfed the internet, sent an email or taken a picture with their phones unless by accident.
technology…the world’s biggest ASSet or the world’s biggest pain in the ASS.kinda that same,no matter how you look at it.
true dat, t_d. i love it and hate it concurrently.
I hate when my laptop overheats. The little mouse pad zone, where you move your finger across, overheats and doesn’t register your finger’s movements until you shut it off for about an hour to let it cool down… Oh and it has to be upside down or it takes three hours to cool off.
That and it burns my skin until it turns red.
that sounds like a glitch, Rinthia. you sure they haven’t done a recall on your laptop model? a touch pad that is so hot that it burns your skin would not seem to be a good feature when using a computer. unless you’re using it to scramble eggs or heat coffee, and then that’s kind of awesome.
I work in a library and we’re just starting to replace the old monitors on the public workstations with touchscreens.
Considering we can hear some of our patrons—and not even the aggressive ones—type from thirty feet away, I’m not sure the PTB have thought this one through . . .
I have a betting pool going for the day and time of the first puncture.
how long do you think it’ll be before someone breaks a screen, Sarah W? you going for under or over a week with your bet? with the way i’ve seen people abuse their electronics, i’d give it a day. maybe two. heheh. keep us updated!
Have a safe trip!
My dad is a technogeek, so no such problem with him. However, he refuses to use shortcuts — always going to drop menus to do functions. As much as he uses computers, you would think he’d figure out how to reduce his keystrokes… so that’s where his old schoolness kicks in, I guess.
i love shortcuts, Stan! in fact, i’ve frustrated people when i’m showing them how to do something because i’ll tell them to (in an easy example) “CTRL-C” or “CTRL-P” instead of copy or paste, which i’m astounded SO many people DON’T do. aargh. i think it frustrates me way more than it does them.
HAHAHAHA, gotta love Mombot!!!
Little story, my mom used to use my dad’s big gaming computer (he loved doing those flight simulator games, until his comp crashed) and she’d just go up there to play Solitaire or something and when she was done, all of the icons on the desktop would be moved around, some would be missing, the size of the screen would be messed up…and she would swear all she did was play some Solitaire and didn’t touch a thing!!
Mom’s are so much fun!! ha!
i’m glad you love Mombot, ESQ!
and i love your story – my mom does the same thing. whenever i come over she has me fix things on her computer like: her widgets being deleted, email sorted strangely, and files gone missing. of course, like your mom, she insists she didn’t do anything to cause these things. someday, i’ll have to make a strip out of this stuff. heheh.
yep, moms are definitely fun!
*raises Hand* aggressive typer here. Well no, not aggressive, purposeful! YES that’s the word I was looking for!
Oh Jeff, how you tickle me so. I swear you’ve been looking into either my mind or my windows! (Stick to the windows, they’re much less frightening) My darling mother loves to get her music….then she can’t find it. So it becomes a mission where I have to come over, find the music, move it, and change the settings on her program. She then wants me to explain it step by step and will then shriek in my ear that I’m a computer genius. Did I mention I don’t know anything about computers? According to Mumsy, because I work with them every day and I own one instantly makes me a computer genius. The best part is when she gets frustrated with me because I don’t know how to make a program she has on her computer work….Because apparently I instantly know how to use all programs on her machine!
This is the same woman who bought herself a Droid and will then hand it to me and say “How do I work this?!” or “Take a picture and send it to so and so.” WHen I tell her I have no idea how to use this phone she says “You can figure it out.”
I love my mother *twitch* And I appreciate the votes of confidence Mom but I really don’t know how to use your electronics!
I feel your pain Jeff.
Mombot’s face in the last panel is awesome!
do you visit the library where Sarah W (see her comment above) works, Pixie? you might be one of the ones she’s concerned about.
ha! it would be fun to put your mom and my mom together in front of a computer and see what happens. mine doesn’t use hers much for videos or music, but she does do a lot of word processing and bejewelling on it. and i have totally done the step by step thing, too. actually wrote all the steps on index cards, listing how to get onto the internet, for my dad. didn’t help. i think he thinks one needs to be a genius (like yourself!) to understand Windows.
thanks! Mombot’s expression in that last panel is totally my mom. heheh.
Oy!
I remember desperately trying to get my dad excited about the iPod Touch. He had zero interest. Then I got the iPhone, and he couldn’t keep his hands off, and could not sleep until he had one for himself! Now my poor step-mother has to deal with him as he walks everywhere with the maps app up in front of his face, or constantly pulls it out to “just check something” during dinner, car rides, the opera, meeting foreign dignitaries, WHATEVER! She swears someday she’s going to rip it from his grasp and stomp it to dust on the pavement, and I don’t blame her.
I’m never allowed to show him anything cool again.
i’ve totally done the same thing to friends, Skipperdee! especially with the iPhone and iPad – they’re really devices you need to see and touch before you understand their allure. it’s too bad we can’t get commissions every time we help sell one of those devices. heheh.
and even though you’re not allowed, you definitely need to show him an iPad.
“You are no longer allowed to experience it’s awesomeness!”
Hilarious! It is amazing- but your webcomic is brilliant! The reaction on your moms face is perfect!
thanks, Funnyshaffer!
I know what you mean. no on in my family seems overly enthusiastic about all the e-readers coming out. they say they like the feel of a book in their hands…Well I’m sure the trees that were used to make that book like the feel of a band saw ripping through their woody flesh.
Haha, I sound like a hippie. Great strip Bot!
SO true, Eptha! i know at least one person at work who is thinking of switching to a Kindle or iPad for just that reason. glancing at my collection of books/comic books makes me guilty to realize i’m responsible for clearing at least a small patch of forest.
GO hippies!
If Mombot said that Popbot wont like it you may be sure she will take care to inform him beforehand that he doesnt like it. At least that is how it usualy works in my family.
heheh. jefbot will have to keep an eye on Mombot so she doesn’t lead Popbot in one direction or another.
My mom loves online games, but sometimes the differences in our experiences are so obvious. Things that seem intuitive to me (probably based on all the games I’ve played) she has to ask me about.
Yay for Oregon! (That’s where I live.) Hopefully it will be a nice day for a wedding–the weather has been weird this summer. My sister’s wedding was last weekend and we actually got a little light rain, which practically never happens in August.
when i was a kid and there was just a joystick and a button or two on a controller, i’d attempt to show my family how to play my video games, Sharra. but now, controllers are SO complicated (XBOX 360 controller has 11 buttons, a couple triggers, 2 joysticks and a d-pad!) i’d never even attempt to show them something like Gears of War. no wonder the Wii has been such a success!
i must say, Oregon was beautiful and the weather was perfect. the day before was SO hot, i was a little worried, but the day of the wedding it cooled down a bit and was just right.
That would be my problem. I tend to keep my nails long when I can. XD Touch screens are not my friend.
i love your avatar, DJ! very cool.
and yeah, i never thought about nails being a problem for touchscreens but after seeing my mom try to use my iPad, i bet it’s more of an issue than people think.
Well Lucario/Riolu are my favorite pokemon so I decided to change it. Though I still have all the Abraxas icons I made.
dats the way. aha aha…mombot FTW
“…i like it. aha aha…”
yay, Mombot!
My Mom isn’t too bad with electronics (not great, but not too bad). She at least will take the time to try and figure out how to use them. My dad on the other hand – forget it. He has no interest in even trying. A while back, he took one of those computer classes for seniors, but it really didn’t change anything. The only time he uses their computer is to Skype with us, and then my mom has to have it all set up and connected to us or he gets frustrated and leaves the room. At least Mombot was willing to give Jefbot’s iPad a try.
it’s kind of weird that my dad is the least computer literate of all of us Schuetzes, Shanna; he used to know some computer programming when i was a kid. i’d love for him to take a computer class though. maybe that would get him interested in them again.
funny you should mention it, but i think i’m going to get my parents’ computers hooked up to Skype. if nothing else it should provide fodder for some funny comic strips.
Well if it was my mom she’d ask if you could play tetris on it. Luck with the wedding, last one i went to it was 105 degrees for threeeee houuuurs. emphasis on ou. lol
heh. with my mom it would be Bejeweled Twist, Anime fan. she LOVES that game!
and i feel your pain about the 105 degree wedding – the previous wedding i went to last month in L.A. was about that temperature. they gave us fans, but those really just pushed the hot air around and made us sweat even more because we were moving our arms. blegh.
Where is Cel?!?
soon, ?. SOOOOON!
I really like this one, bot. I like how simple it is with the dialogue and Mombot’s expressions from panel to panel. Also, thanks to this strip, I’m going to start calling certain areas on my body my capacitive touchscreen.
I convinced my mom to get one for her birthday. Cos i was sick of her asking me how to use a computer. Other than the fact that she keeps trying to use her nails to click something…She seems to understand it 100% better than she EVER did the little laptop she had. THANK GOD!
ah… a mothers touch
Haha Bot, this one is great! Sounds like something a mother would say! I got a good chuckle out of this one. NJ!
[...] a couple of weeks ago, here’s what Mombot’s “Told ya” was in reference to: JEFbot.265 Share and [...]
I guess it’s easy for Jefbot, but not for the Mombots and Popbots of the world.