I was originally going to post this as a comment to BarbinMD's front page post about McCain and the internets. After I had written it I realized that I had written something long enough to stand alone as a diary. So without further ado- my 3rd diary here on dKos.
The week before last, I was down in the Chicago suburbs for a week with my wife and kids spending some vacation time at my parents house. My 76 year old dad had purchased a new computer a couple of weeks prior and he had been waiting for me to come down to set it up for him. He had finally replaced his Windows 98 machine and hadn't been on the internet since he had dumped Juno several years ago. So I convinced him to go DSL and he was completely clueless as to what to do. It was a bit eye-opening for me. He's one of those people who are very hesitant to do anything on the computer because he's afraid he'll break something. For every message and dialog box that came up during the various software installations, I had to assure him that it was OK to hit the "Yes" button.
Then I had to convince him that installing some software that was 6 years old may not be a good idea just because it was kind of old and probably not going to be compatible with Vista. It wasn't and so he got a lesson on how to uninstall software. But finally we go it running and I got him signed up for a Yahoo email account. I'm trying to convince him to check out some of the political blogs that I frequent. He's as interested in politics as I am, but he relies entirely upon his Chicago newspapers and what he sees on the big 3 networks and PBS. My mom would love to have him get out of her hair. He's finally fully retired after 50 years of teaching music to kids (first as a Jr High band director and ending up as a piano teacher). He loves to get on a soapbox about the political issues of the day and my mom really couldn't care less anymore so he needs a forum to rant. I'm trying to get him to sign up for dKos, but he's apprehensive because he doesn't understand the internets.
What REALLY knocked me for a loop was when I pushed my 80 year old mom to get online and set up a Yahoo email account (with my help of course). I knew she hadn't touched a computer for probably at least 15 years, if not longer. I had assured her that it would be very easy using email and surfing the net to do online shopping. I emphasized- it's pretty much just "point and click" with the mouse. We want her to try online shopping because she's getting a bit shaky behind the wheel and my sisters and I would really just prefer if she stopped driving altogther, but that isn't going to happen until she realizes it for herself. We all hope that some terrible accident isn't going to be the thing that changes her mind.
Well when she got on the computer it was immediately obvious to me THAT SHE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO USE A MOUSE! Back when she had worked on a computer at her final job, it was all keyboard entry. After our session, in which I literally had to put my hand over hers and help her move the mouse around the screen, I realized that she will probably not try to get back online without some serious pushing and help from my sisters who still live within a few miles of my parent's house (I live in Madison).
So my point to all this, is that after my experience with my parents, I'm going to cut McCain a bit of slack for being pretty much internet ignorant. He's old. My folks aren't that much older than him. Now what this really points up though is that McCain is old and out of touch with the world that we live in today. He can't help it. It's just a fact of life. But it makes it even more obvious, that the time has come to pass control onto the next generation that is Obama. It's time.
AN UPDATE:
So the common response has been, it's OK to cut my parent's some slack for being internet ignorant, but they're not running for POTUS and so McCain is not slack-worthy. I couldn't agree more. I was more or less making that point (at least I thought I was) with my last few sentences. Obviously that wasn't made clear and I should have been more explicit with that point. My biggest point really, was that McCain is of another generation. His ignorance of the internet, and his apparent unwillingness to bother to become familiar with it is part of that in some respects. It's time for the next generation to take the reigns of government. It also is just another reason why Obama is so much the person who should be elected come November.