In another (fake) news report I just wrote:

Fairfax, VA -
Area man Jim Johnson, 66, asks his grandson, John, age 11, to help him add a contact to his cell phone. In addition, Jim is unable to upload a video to YouTube and, despite hours of trying, his son Jack Johnson, 44, has given up trying to explain to his father how to use Skype.

"It's a shame he can't really manage to use Skype, because we'd love to do video calls with him so he can see his grandkids. He just can't seem to understand how to use it" said Jack.

"I gave pappy my iPod Touch, he didn't even know what do do with it!" said John.

Indeed, many of the technological innovations of today are simply lost on the grandparents of today. While their kids are blogging and texting and making well-edited home made videos of their kids and their grand kids are living in a state of constant awareness and continual information flow, today's grandparents simply haven't grown older - they have remained firmly stuck in a mental model of communications and technology that was passive and consumption based, not participatory and collaborative. It's not just about being unable to work the digital camera - it's not being able to conceptualize the basic workings of technology....


(I just made that up, but it kind of reminds me of this:

http://www.satirewire.com/features/siliconpines/acf.shtml