“I…” She blushed. “I don’t know any of it.”
I hesitated.
“I see. Do you have a phone or a computer?”
“Yes.” She nodded and reached for her bag. She pulled out a brand-new iPhone, iPad, and laptop. “My son Jason bought them for me.”
“Bless him. He didn’t show you how to use them?”Oh, Jason, I thought,good intentions, poor follow-through.
Helen shook her head, and Jin gaped at all the gadgets spread on the table. Phyllis ignored us, absorbed in starting her blog.
“What tasks do you think you’ll want to do most often?” I asked.
“Search for information and keep up with friends and family on social media.” Helen’s voice had a practiced air of confidence.
“Great! And do you think you’ll be more comfortable generally using your phone, the tablet, or the computer?”
That stumped her. She looked worried as she surveyed her options.
Jin leaned forward and tapped on the iPhone. “Phone. You have to use your phone for the social media.”
“And the computer for searching Google,” Phyllis added, her eyes still on her screen.
Helen nodded, jotting it all down in her notebook.
“Um, actually. You can use all three of them… for anything. Anything on the internet. Or,” I added as an afterthought, “not on the internet.”
The three of them looked at me as if I’d just announced that gravity was a myth.
“What do you mean?” Phyllis’s sharp voice told me she was not used to being corrected.
“Well… all of these devices can connect to the internet. Social media, Google, and email are all located on the internet. And with…” I paused, then stood and began to pace the room, thinking.
“Do I need to plug the phone into the other ones?” Helen asked. “How do they communicate? If I post on Facebook from my phone, how does my computer know?”
I exhaled, long and slowly, then spotted a marker on the dry-erase board.
“The internet,” I began, sketching on the board as I went,“is a network of peer-to-peer connections. It transmits data via—”
I stopped when I realized Phyllis was glaring at me, Helen had broken the tip of her pencil, and Jin was looking from me to her phone, horrified and transfixed.
I capped the pen and stared up at the board, wondering for the first time if I was actually up to this challenge. I had never taught anyone before. How was I supposed to teach these three women how to use technology? It was like they were highly educated aliens, or time travelers, smart in their own way but completely unfamiliar with life in the twenty-first century. But then I looked back at them, at the hope and fear in their faces, and I almost laughed. I was Rachel Weiss: of course I could do this.
“Okay. Look. We don’t have to understand everything. We just have to understand enough for our own purposes. Like, we get that the theory of relativity is important, but who can actually explain it, right?” Phyllis raised her hand. “Just an example, Phyllis! Anyway. Let’s just break this down into pieces that are relevant and easy to digest, okay?”
After taking a moment for Helen to sharpen her pencil, I started again, answering their questions with bite-size answers. At the end of the allotted ninety minutes, they were satisfied.
“You’re much better than the last volunteer.” Helen packed away her pencil and notebook.
“He was a dolt,” Phyllis agreed.
“What happened to your leg?” Jin asked.
“Oh, that?” I laughed and then said, deadpan, “I jumped out of my ex’s window.”
“Jump? Why?” Jin sounded concerned as Phyllis frowned and Helen’s face lit up.
“You’re single?” Helen beamed. “My Jason is a few years older than you, but—”
