how to use the internet

"For goodness sake, smile! I just need a cute photo for Facebook!"

"For goodness sake, smile! I just need a cute photo for Facebook!"

That wasn't exactly what I was expecting to hear two miles up a high-mountain Colorado trail on a late-August backpacking trip. I had seen this group of four children and a woman in the parking lot and the littlest guy, perhaps 4 years old, was a bit whiney. I thought they'd be back before I had my pack on.

But two miles up the trail at a spot offering a beautiful view of the Larimer River valley, I finally caught up with them. The woman was attempting to arrange these four children, the oldest of which appeared to be about 10, into a grouping for a photograph with the valley in the background. I could hear the little guy crying from a few hundred yards down the trail and as I rounded the bend, I heard her entreating the kids to stand still and smile so she could "get a good photograph for Facebook."

The internet guide I wrote for my mom. When you didn't grow up with the internet...

The internet guide I wrote for my mom. When you didn't grow up with the internet...

My mom didn't grow up with computers. I didn't either for that matter. We got our first computer in about 1985 when I was in junior high. My dad bought an Apple IIE and I think it had a total working memory of 2 MB. Everything had to go on those little 3 inch floppy disks and heaven help you if you lost the one with your 9th grade English paper on it.

My mom just got her very own Macintosh computer and I am so proud of her! What I have realized from watching her struggle with technology is that for those of us who were not born with a smartphone in our hand, learning how the world of the internet works can feel really overwhelming. The internet didn't really exist until I was well out of graduate school and my own education in how it works has been largely courtesy of Dr. Google.