Fake mantras
By thoughtlessly repeating the same thing, we are driving ourselves into a trap. A controversial thought or a phrase thrown in a hurry turns into an axiom that no longer needs to be pondered or proven. A lot of people 'see' the awful graininess of 2K screens just because they used to scold PenTile. Or, until now, all existing flagships on Android are accused of terrible lags and brakes simply because they are used to opposing the 'green robot' iOS. Not that they deliberately refused to notice the obvious. Thinking about familiar and well-known things simply does not occur to mind.
A classic example is the growth of the diagonal of screens in iPhone. While the devices Apple came out with a small screen diagonal, most fans firmly believed that it was simply impossible to use 'four-inch shovels'. Moreover, they were honestly convinced of this every time they picked up any other smartphone. But as soon as Apple released iPhone with a 4.7-inch diagonal, the shovels immediately became comfortable for the bulk of fans. And from lamentations about an uncomfortable grip, ruined ergonomics and exercises for stretching fingers, not a trace remained.
With the purchase of the first smartphone, things are similar. Many people far from technology are too used to repeating that they do not need anything but a simple 'dialer'. Convincing this not only to others, but also to ourselves.
Theory and practice
In childhood and adolescence, people are drawn to everything new. A new tech toy is interesting in and of itself, no matter how useful it is. Views change with age. It is not clear what you want to spend time on pointless fussing with much less. The practical benefits of the device come to the fore, and experiments cease to be an end in itself. Especially when a person is not too interested in technology.
For a geek, a smartphone is a set of components and the accompanying software. For older people who are far from technology, a smartphone is a set of incomprehensible use cases and a jumble of questionable functions. Teaching such a person to press buttons in the right sequence is not even half the battle. It is much more important to explain to him what is the meaning of all this for him personally. And sometimes not so much 'explain' as 'convince'.
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Things that are obvious to one person may not be obvious to another. Before discussing anything, it is worth making sure that you speak the same language with the other person. It seems to you that you are talking about things that are close and understandable to any person. About communication with relatives and friends, photographs, walks, notes in a notebook, news and weather forecasts. And your interlocutor hears an incomprehensible set of words: Telegram, Instagram, chats, social networks, synchronization with the cloud, navigation, podcasts … dispense with in the future.
Words that don't have experience behind are just words. You can perfectly understand how a bicycle works. But based on theoretical calculations alone, you can't guess whether you will enjoy riding it. First you need to learn how to ride it. Moreover, figuring out which way to pedal and how to adjust the seat height is far from the most important thing. It is much more important not to abandon the whole thing after the first fall. Although at that moment it will certainly seem that the harm from bicycles is much more than good.
If you give an elderly person his first smartphone in his life and just install a set of useful software there, then it is very likely that he will still use it as a 'dialer'. Even if you explain how these applications are launched, what they do and what buttons should be pressed in them.
Your job is not just to explain theory, but to provide practice. And do not give up on disappointment after the first failure. Periodically write to the messenger installed on your smartphone and remind your family about it. Ask for a couple of photos. Better yet, create a family photo album in the cloud. Install a pedometer app on your phone and at the end of the week compare who has completed the most steps. Show that maps are a great way to track public transport in addition to being a motorist's navigation. Share a good itinerary from Google Maps 'chronology' or drop a link to a nice cafe on Yandex.Maps. And then one day it will turn out that the 'unnecessary' smartphone has really come into place. And taking pictures, chatting and reading news is interesting at any age.
All this can take time, patience and effort. But otherwise, the whole idea with a smartphone is initially meaningless. The device will remain a dead piece of iron, which with the same success could not have been taken out of the box at all, but immediately sent to the closet.
Technical details
The specific smartphone model and its technical characteristics are secondary here. How much the smartphone will be in place, in this situation depends on you, and not at all on him. But it's worth thinking about a tariff plan – there should be mobile Internet on a smartphone.
When choosing applications, it is worth remembering that the future smartphone owner is far from being a geek. And what is good for you may not necessarily be ideal for him. A novice user does not care whether the smartphone is 'clean' Android, how many settings are in the proprietary launcher, and how much you like Yandex or Google services. The main thing is that all this should not be very difficult to use. Google Photo is perfect for automatic synchronization of photos with the cloud, 'Yandex.Transport' – for tracking city transport, WhatsApp / Telegram – for correspondence. You probably know much more sophisticated and functional solutions. But here the question is not in specific software, but in the use cases you have invented. The main thing is to show that a smartphone can really be necessary, useful and interesting. And only then focus on small technical details.
Friday column number 98. Yandex.Transport
From the same it is necessary to make a start when choosing the device itself. It makes no sense in principle to chase the most productive hardware and the most recent version of the OS. But it is necessary that the smartphone cope with all tasks at an acceptable level. For example, a camera should produce decent pictures even if initially a person thinks that he will not need it. Otherwise, you simply will not have a chance to understand whether he was right or wrong.