My Mom received a shiny new iPad for Christmas this year and has taken to it like a duck to water, checking her email, reading the Duke Basketball Report, and shopping for eBooks. She’s 60-something, computer & Web literate, but still timid with a mouse, and often a bit overwhelmed by the Web.
Fast-forward to three days later…she found herself back in front of a normal computer, and needing to scroll down on the Webpage she was reading, reached for the screen and tried to swipe at the monitor! My Dad & I looked at each other and burst out laughing.
We had a conversation the day before about how my 1-year-old daughter would grow up in a multi-touch world – already obsessed with Mom & Dad’s iPhones, she would be surprised when the computer monitor, or even TV* didn’t respond to her touch. What we didn’t realize is that technology is changing us all a lot faster than we think: in just 3 days, the iPad had changed my mother’s expectations.
*Keep your hands OFF the TV, Susanna!