So a few weeks ago for my mom's birthday (82!!) I got her a cell phone.
No, not a cell phone. An iPhone. SE - the smallest, lowest priced one we sell.
For years she has been using the landline, and it's been fine for her purposes. But recently the costs have gotten so high that it's astronomical. On her pension it's just too much.
Meantime I had been paying low fees for my cellular service because I qualify for the provider's plan for the hearing and speech impaired - I don't pay for voice calls at all, only text and data, which is perfect.
However, recent changes mean that I can convert my cellular plan to a more conventional plan, add a second line to it for my mother, and have her pay less a month (less than half the cost of the landline). Best of all, she can use Siri on the iPhone (voice activated assistant built into the iPhone), which alleviates the difficulty she is having with her vision. And it's just 30 US dollars more a month than what I've been paying to do so.
So my dear mother decided to make the economic choice and drop the landline and go with the iPhone with me. Why not? We already co-own the townhouse and share the mortgage and other costs between us.
For the past few weeks, I've been spending time with my mom teaching her how to master the iPhone. What it means when the phone is in locked mode, how to make and receive phone calls, and how to make and receive text messages. How to use Siri to do all the visual work (dictating messages instead of typing, dialing people in her contacts or just dialing numbers, etc). How to put the phone into Do Not Disturb mode for church (keeps it from ringing during Communion). How to check voice mail.
It's going to be a long, slow process for my mom. After all, she grew up with those old
two-piece phones and party lines where you had to be really careful what you said because you never knew who else was on the line with you. Now she is holding a powerful little computer in her hand, and it's scary.
Yet here's the kicker. The other morning, she came to me and asked me if there was a way to use the phone like a flashlight. I had to bite my tongue from LOL'ing because it is a feature I use ALL THE TIME, yet never thought my mother would be interested in it. But with her vision, it's getting harder to see even in well-lit environments. She wanted to know if it would help her with her coffee maker - the thing is all black with tiny print on it, and it's hard for her to pick out the buttons she needs to press, or even read the water level on the reservoir. So she discovered a useful feature of the iPhone all by herself. And yes, I showed her how to use the camera flash as a flashlight.