Old Relative Not Happy About Push To Use Ipads Etc

by disillusioned 2 27 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  disillusioned 2

  I was in a close relatives house yesterday and she was very angry and resentful at the push to use electronic devices at the meetings. She was talking to another relative of mine who has just got an ipad to use. This relative of mine is very elderly and obviously prefers to use her bible and other books. She said she was pushed by an elder to do a demonstration on the platform using her ipad and she said she couldn't because of arthritis in her fingers and she flatout refused to use it!

  She also said all of her friends who are also elderly refuse to be pushed to use them!

  She said she hates all the changes! I'm not sure if she knows about the calendar being discontinued yet. I of course couldn't say anything about it. 'I know nothing'.

  So there is uneasiness in the ranks. Long may it continue.
• 

  Sail Away

  My 90-year-old JW in-laws have long held that computers and TVs are Satan's tools. They have neither in their home. My FIL was an elder for over 50 years. His "privileges" were gradually taken away because the younger elders couldn't reach him by cell phone or email. My FIL was tremendously saddened by this, and he still refuses to get these devices, stating they are not for them, but for the young.

  Funny thing-- we hear the elders are trying to set up a shepherding call to share a video about not being prideful and stubborn and accepting help in your old age. Don't think that's going to fly! So far they have not invited the elders in when they show up. They just say it's not a good time.

  My husband has spoken to his dad several times recently and believes he is fully competent and of sound mind despite the money-grubbing elders' claims to the contrary.
• 

  purrpurr

  Great! The elderly ones are their core members and the ones most likely to leave their houses to the when they die. If they pi55 off these ones they will loose a huge section of their followers
• 

  Lieu

  People in general don't like change. The oldz really don't like it, which is why the GB is still stuck in 1950 when it comes to most things.

  I'm a techie but I definitely understand rather having a book in the hand than a computer device. Who wants to stare at a screen while reading for hours? Who wants to fool with little keyboards? Annnnd, if I'm into a good read, I want to be able to keep reading in the bathtub or the toilet or outside under a tree and not have to worry about battery issues or electric shock.
• 

  Pistoff

  Are the witnesses the only religion making this push to digital?

  I can't think of anyone else who badgers their flock to abandon print.
  
• 

  GrreatTeacher

  It seems like no matter the decision and no matter the internal controversy at the top about that decision, once it's made, they go gung ho.

  They could have made a dual system available where the younger ones could use all the technology they like, while they also acknowledge that the older folks may still prefer paper and make that an acceptable decision as well.

  They would still reduce costs for printing, but it's like they need a black or white pronouncement: print is bad, electronic is good.

  Another measure of a cult.
• 

  Xanthippe

  They would still reduce costs for printing, but it's like they need a black or white pronouncement: print is bad, electronic is good. - GreatTeacher

  Print is old light. Paper comes from trees and we know what happened when a certain scantily clad couple got too near a tree. Tools of Satan trees are.
• 

  Magnum

  Thanks. This touches on one of my biggest questions about JWdom - What are the old-timers thinking? I imagine that they long for the days when the material was deeper, they met together in book study groups, there was excitement because it was thought that the end was near, etc.

  Now, the end is nowhere in sight and the org is abandoning print and moving to digital. These old-timers must long for the feel and smell of print 32-pg mags, bound volumes, 384-pg books, etc. They must long for the JWdom of old. Even though it was wrong, it seemed so different.
  
• 

  NewYork44M

  The Watchtower is transforming into a new religion. The only thing holding them back is that old people with memories of what the religion was not died yet.

  Tell your relative the truth - the Watchtower does not care about her.
• 

  WTWizard

  It's one thing to insist on using electronic devices. But, have they stopped to think how people are going to afford them? With all the cutbacks on people working for a living so they can pious-sneer, and with the push to throw away whatever tablet money they have into the Worldwide Damnation Fund, who can afford these devices unless they are disobeying something? I am also assuming that, when they push people to move out of homes into little apartments (I presume, as in "studio"), they will have to throw away the house money.

  Older people, especially those with much field circus in their past, tend to be limited in what they can earn. Someone that is in their 20s and 30s can make up for some of the money--say, by stashing 20 toilet papers a week instead of throwing it away, until they can buy the damn tablet. However, someone that is 98 years old is probably not going to be able to work secularly and will be on a fixed income. Can they even afford the device, let alone data plans?