Hacker News Reader

Comment by _ankit_ | Hacker News Reader

A big part of staying in touch is sharing photos, and video calling. Especially, if you live far away from your family.

View on HN

I once thought this but not again. Your family, at least the elders, would more appreciate that you pick up the phone or send postal mail than use technology.

You think it's a big part but you are in fact making that personal connection weaker.

At the very most in the world technology, email would suffice for your family.

To clarify, almost all the usability issues mentioned in the article are the ones I face myself too. The title is a bit misleading, it's just what prompted me to write it.

Your family, at least the elders, would more appreciate that you pick up the phone or send postal mail than use technology.

Most of the elders in my family - talking people 65+ - have computers, use Facebook, to keep in touch. Most of my mother's _friends_ are on Facebook for that matter. They do appreciate a phone call, but for grand-baby pictures and video, that's where the action is.

My mother is the exception. At the age of 70, she's never touched a computer. She likely never will.

Anyway - my point is that my family is not exceptional, nor especially early-adopting. We're pretty typical Americans, I think.

Not my family; the "elders" (my Dad and his 3 siblings) all get on go-to-meeting every other Saturday and have a video chat. They were very excited that I joined their meeting last week. I have dozens of cousins of various degrees I only know through facebook, which we are using to organize a family reunion. I'm not sure how this makes our family's personal connections weaker.

by the way; phones and postal mail still use technology.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com