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How to deal with Mom who CANNOT learn how to use a password manager, but demands I "fix it" (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by weeeeum@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've become the tech guy, and family are extremely entitled to my services. My mom especially. BTW I can't cut her out, because I still live with her and she EXPECTS me to fix anything computer related. She won't take no for an answer.

I've tried to keep track of her passwords with a password manager, I've spent literally 8 hours in a single day filling out captchas and replacing passwords, and I've spent even more time trying to teach my mom how to use the manager.

She CAN'T learn it, and always makes a new password, which she doesnt keep track of and expects me to fix it. What the hell do it do? She uses firefox, with auto refill on, but it doesn't autofill on her iphone.

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[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Older people rely on logic. And most interfaces are the opposite of logical.

Younger people have this idea of "press a bunch of buttons and once you see how it works, then memorize the steps ".

That's the exact opposite of my experience.

I tried to explain Windows logically to the seniors in my family. This is a window. This is the taskbar, it shows your open windows. This is a folder, it contains your documents.

Every time we would start over with these abstractions which are supposed to make logical sense, the very foundation of Windows' early success with casual users. None of it ever stuck with them.

They would instead write down every minor step to achieve a specific goal in a specific way, so they could basically control Windows without paying any attention to context presented on the screen. That's the only thing that worked for them.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

That’s the one thing old people just don’t do: they won’t read what’s presented on the screen.

I think it comes from growing up before GUIs, so they think of an interface as a set of buttons on a console. There was very little reason to read an interface back when they were all physical; you either knew what each button did or you didn’t and you only had to memorize it once.

Like, the controls of a T-38 tank are always the same. The controls of a ‘57 Chevy are always the same.

Once GUIs came into play, people started interacting with orders of magnitude more control interfaces, so the concept of “there is no manual; the interface is self-documenting” came into existence.

Now you’re supposed to learn the interface and use it on the first encounter, which means reading what the interface is saying.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

that's roughly what I experience too. It's like if they would see a colorful pane of glass, but could not make a distinction between the "boxes" on the screen