I’m sure I don’t have to tell any of you reading this that the Internet can be a scary place, especially for one’s parents. There are things here – ugly, nasty things – that I’d rather they just not know about. Which is why my dad isn’t part of the whole “Internet thing” and I don’t push him in that direction. Sure, I made him an email account so he can get important notices from doctors, businesses or family, but when he wants to check that email, I generally have to be around for him to figure it out. The only webpage I have bookmarked on his phone is JEFBOT.com, and he doesn’t “web surf” so I feel pretty safe with that decision. Of course, there’s the chance that he’ll read today’s strip and become suspicious and interested in what he’s missing on the ol’ Intertubes. Hmm… might need to see if I can block his IP address from viewing this page.
Some people really don’t belong on the internet. Unfortunately, a lot of those people still use it.
it’s true, Fijiman – the internet isn’t for everybody. well, it should be, but some need a little more guidance than others.
and check you out: you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! wear them well – they’ll shield your eyes from all the 2cups, parasite-extractions and weird fluids you may be exposed to on the ‘net:
😎
Excuse me while I go and done The Shades.
😎
Is that the right one?
woo! congrats, Fiji – the Shades look good on ya. would’ve had ’em to you sooner too, had i not gotten today’s strip up right before i had to jet out the door for work.
I knew that I would get them eventually. I just thought that it would have taken longer.
Holy shit I’m second. This has never happened before.
So… Jefbot. I feel your pain. My stepdad uses the internet for its original purpose, as well as for craigslist and e-mail from his temple. And that’s about it. I’m just glad he doesn’t know about 4chan.
glad you can relate! and let’s hope your stepdad doesn’t know about 4chan – sometimes i think our parental-units are more internet savvy than they let on…
Also, do you play Star Trek Online? I’m at level 45 (Rear Admiral, Upper Half level 1) with my science officer character and am just starting to borg-ify my ship.
I also hear the SW:TOR is going free soon.
nope, i don’t play STO, SW:TOR or any MMOs at the moment, NeoDarklight. not for lack of wanting, but for lack of time – there’s just not enough! i barely have any time to play more than one console game in a couple months, these days.
congrats on 2nd-ing, NeoD!
Inviso-shades of seconding for NeoDarklight! If my memory speaks the truth, the inviso-shades exist because of me right?
do they, ROM!? it’s very possible; can’t remember when i started handing those out. one of us should check the archives.
Just looked back. As best as I’ve been able to find, the first appearance of the inviso-shades as a “thing” here was 289, during the Last Arcade cycle. EvilStepQueen got them then.
I value your hard work.
i think you’re right, T! amazed they’ve been around for that long. i should put together some sort of BOTnomicon to keep track of all these things. 🙂
I remember ten years ago when I first created my father’s email account on yahoo. Every other day her would tell me to help him out becasue he had received an email saying he won the lottery or something similar. Took me quite a while to make him understand spam. Once he got it we started having weekly contests, the winner was the one who accumulated the greater sum in “prizes” lol
ha! spam is a weird concept to convey, f_f – with all the princes giving away money and weight loss miracle drugs that appear in inboxes everyday – so i applaud the contest angle. if my dad starts checking email, i’ll have to remember that. 🙂
Even those of us who learned everything we know about computers out of desperation can end up doing PEBKAC tech support. Years ago my boss called me over to his computer to ask me how to open this urgent message. Well, I looked at it, and it was an “urgent interoffice memo” from somebody I didn’t know at an e-mail server we didn’t use. The message body included something he was supposed to click in order to see the important information. So he’d sat there and clicked it and clicked it and (apparently) nothing had happened . . . Yyyyyeah. So I explained a few things to him and then said that we would “have to” get the “very latest” anti-virus updates in order to make sure his computer hadn’t been hacked. (I had updated all of our prophylactic software the previous day.)
And then I connected him to McAfee’s free online virus scan.
Over dial-up.
It killed his entire afternoon, but he never took e-mail from strangers again.
yikes! “he’d sat there and clicked it and clicked it” – that’s a hard lesson to learn, Jenny Islander. good thing you caught it in time – who knows how long his computer might’ve been hacked or how many more emails he would’ve opened without you there! i think learning about malicious emails is one of the first lessons a person at a computer should take.
The thing is, I have no idea what it was supposed to do. What I know about computers, as I said before, I learned out of desperation. This was back in the dinosaur days when widely sold anti-jerk software didn’t immediately notify the user when something had been found and zapped and what it was. My husband suggests that it was actually a legit message generated by somebody at one of the dozen large businesses that my boss communicated with regularly, but it was supposed to have been an internal memo, and when their IT discovered that wossname had sent the message to everybody in her huge address book, they shut down the link and had her redo the e-mail. But still–!
I have the same problem, except my dad is so oldfashioned he won’t even try to have facebook. The real problem with our parents, and other people not used to the technology, start asking us how to do stuff. And they won’t let me even show how to do it myself, I have to explain it without knowing what they did wrong.
As an example, my mom got a phone with a touch-screen, which means she doesn’t now how the heck she is supposed to lock or use the screen. She has been pocketdialing me at least three times since she got it two days ago.
There should be some kind of mandatory course for people who don’t know technology, so all us who know how can use them in peace.
also, fourth! this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to the shades so YAAAAY! 😀
woo! 😀
i’m not even sure my dad knows exactly what facebook is, DAS, and my mom has no interest (although i think it might be good for her to find some old friends or school acquaintances.) in a way, i suppose that’s a good thing as i don’t have to do any social network troubleshooting for them.
and my mom recently got an iPhone, but so far she hasn’t required much handholding. if i start getting random calls from her without her answering, though, i’ll know why. heheh.
as for that mandatory course for correct technology use: 100% agree. half my work at my day job would be done for me if we made that law.
One phrase comes to mind for this strip: “This is not the internets your looking for.”
heh. move along, move along.
lol the interwebs can be too much to handle for some people “with great power comes great responsibility”
that quote comes in handy for SO many occasions, MrSnow!
LOL, I think this is about as close as you’ve ever come to a political statement. But you’re right, some of the things one reads on the internet now (that people actually believe) are truly frightening, especially all the theocratic notions; it’s almost as if they’re wishing for the good old days of the Spanish Inquisition.
I love the little “delete” sound effects in Panel 2… wouldn’t it be great if those appeared in real life, sort of like in the Scott Pilgrim movie?
the political emails are the absolute worst, Kim. so hateful and flat-out untrue much of the time. (which is one of the reasons i’m glad my dad isn’t being subjected to them!)
and, yes: life would be better with sound effects like that, no question.
My dad is still an internet newbie. He’s figured out his email, and facebook and ebay. But now he’s a lurker on craigslist looking for parts to fix things around the house. He doesn’t go much further than that though. 😛 Mom is pretty good with computers cuz she’s around them all day.
email, facebook, ebay and craigslist is far enough, dj! once he gets comfortable with those, he’s surely going to want more. 😛
I love your dad. He’s too funny. (:
heheh. he is indeed, Nat.
Mom’s great with the internet, and I guide her to things I think she’d find cool. My dad…I often walk into the office when he’s swearing at something (the “it’s not a temper tantrum” temper tantrum) and fix whatever he’s done wrong with the computer. I’m beginning to count down the days to January when I leave, just so I don’t have to deal with his things anymore.
So I’m not sure Dad even knows how to look at anything besides eBay, Amazon and his e-mail. He has a Facebook, but few friends, so he should be ok with that…I hope.
i fear what will happen to your dad once you’ve left, T! who’s gonna fix his computer and settle down his tantrums then?
glad he hasn’t gone beyond the internet services you mentioned, although facebook does have the potential to incite drama; i haven’t been on in a while, but i know i’ve had to bite my tongue (and typing fingers) several times in the past couple months due to all the politics and opinions going on at the moment.
God, I know what you mean. I’ve had to go so far as to defriend some very dear friends because they kept bombarding my timeline with strongly worded political stuff. I want the option to Rip Van Winkle my way through to November 7th, when the election’s done.
My family was basically the first ones in my area with AOL when it came out..
Obviously not in use anymore, but my family has been able to keep up with the basics at least about email, spam and what to avoid on the Internet..
Though I still have not learned that forums are just going to make me angry.
Though I am a bit slow with the internets, i have surrounded myself with comp programmers as friends. So they pick up the slack.
yes, sometimes it’s just best to avoid forums altogether, Satoshieyes – too much craziness and drama there! and, yeah, i was on AOL for the longest time, too. they were such a juggernaut for the longest time, but now are mostly just a footnote in internet history.
Yesterday was a loooong day. Keep the shades Fijiman. You DO NOT want to see such horrible things. The internet is horrible indeed. But there are still some nice areas… *ahem* http://www.jefbot.com *ahem*
Changed my email for this gravatar!
looks cool, ROM! i dig it. 😀
it’s true, ROM! – i’m always surprised, humbled and appreciative of how awesome the comments here are! so many of my friends’ blogs/webcomics/sites have been overrun by trolls; most of them end up shutting their comment systems down, sadly. you guys are awesome.
To be honest, I was once overrun by 1 troll… I didn’t know how to deal with it, he called me so many things… 🙁 I deleted that blog, and years later I made a new one! No one comments though, so I just post whatever things seem cool.
Hey Jef, have you heard of a canadian kids show called Detentionaire? I checked it out on Youtube and the main character reminds me of you!
hmm. nope, never heard of it, DAS, but i’ll check it out as soon as i get the chance (and i’ll hold out hope that the main character is someone cool. heheh.)
^^d my Dad’s actually the IT tech guy for our house, and used to be for my middle school too (he also taught history and english.)
It’s not so bad, although he got a Facebook and runs a more effective blog, and self publishes eBooks … and I don’t really do any of those well… not even the ‘make webcomics and post often’ dealie XD
since your dad’s so tech-savvy, i’ll bet he’s the one hoping that you aren’t unduly influenced by the horrors of the internet, JeweledRose!
Yes, there is much the older generations just don’t (and probably shouldn’t) understand about the Internet. I don’t have to worry about my dad since he won’t even touch a computer or smart phone. My mom knows enough of technology to be dangerous. My in-laws are almost as savvy as the younger generation though!
you better keep an eye on those in-laws, Shanna! and be thankful your dad’s not interested in getting “connected.” sometimes i think it’s better that there’s a barrier to entry for the internet and it’s not something that’s self-explanatory and “easy” to understand without someone helping out.
Mom and Dad found my blog two months ago. It’s been…interesting.
oooh. wow. that’s almost like them going through your diary, Sarah W! let’s hope you don’t have anything too revealing or juicy posted.
Tragically, no. But it’s still disconcerting to have my dad commenting on things . . . Dad has an interesting sense of humor.
My parents have been around a lot longer so while they do not know as much about machines, the larger sums of money they have over me (not rich but richer then me) allowed them to get things far in advance to me. For example the Smart phone, the Ipad, ect. That still does not stop them from assuming I know these things I never touched in my life. Luckily I figure it out sooner or later.
at least you have the benefit of youth, Zolen! although they’re ahead now, you’ll take to that stuff faster, and be ahead of them in no time. 🙂
My dad is quite well-versed in electronics of many kinds. Unfortunately, that also means that while I navigate to my current adress so they can check it out in google street wiew… he opens Autocad. And refuses to open anything else for 90 minutes, because he is sure that he knows better.
heheh. i’m sure if my dad was a little younger, he totally would’ve been one of those Autocad guys, Maryz. actually, that’s not a bad program to show him to get him more interested in computers… as long as i can keep him away from the internet, of course.
I truly wish I could somehow remove my fathers presence from the internet. I mean, the other day I sent him some funny videos, and he asked me where I found them. I told him that I had pulled from a website called “reddit” and now he wants a reddit account.
:C
EEP! i fear getting him set up with a Reddit account will be opening a can of digital worms, Chris! resist! RESIST!
Finally have a computer again, yay. My parents constantly have me fix their computers because they “break” when they get overloaded with viruses. They keep turning off the anti-virus software I put on their computers because “it watches where they go.”
Let me guess. They read that on the Internet. Agh!
ha!
woo! glad you’re back with us, Ozmandious! 😀
and: see!?? having a computer loaded with viruses is what happens when your parents know just enough to be dangerous!
Hah. My dad’s e-mail is my mom’s e-mail. He won’t have anything to do with computers. He basically thinks they’re the work of the Devil. He frequently rants about how the world is going to pot because of the Internet. He thinks that people need to read BOOKS (paper, not E-) and play board games and that all government and job-related stuff (like food stamps or job applications) should be done in person and on paper.
well, i can’t say i disagree with your dad 100%, KB – the internet just might be the devil. and board games and books are pretty cool. still, if someone tried to take the internet away from me, i’d have to fight them.
As long as I can play WoW and read my comics, I’m happy enough. It’s also useful for looking up movies (IMDB FTW!).
LOL Good Morning BOTvilians!
This made me giggle so. My mom still tried to mother me over FB…it’s hysterical.
And somehow, because I know a few things about computers, I am a technical GENIUS to my parents. I keep trying to tell them to look it up but they tell me to do it for them. UGH
morning, Pixie!
that’s awesome that your mother still mothers you on FB. it might be a fun experiment for me to see how Mombot would take to it. NO. must resist even entertaining the thought. 😉
Mr. Jeffbot, sir… gotta let you know that when visiting your site with the Opera or Dolphin browsers (and sometimes also happens with Chrome and FireFox, but not as often) the comment area shows in a very dark color that doesn’t allow to read the black text.
In all honestly I have NO desire to have to install either IE or Safari in order to be able to read your page so I thought I should let you know. Thanks in advance.
thanks for the notice, JCB. i’ve gotten similar complaints about the background on a few browsers, so i’ll try and fix that this weekend.