• The Atlantic, Friday, November 25, 2011 10:56 AM

Despite any hard data to back it up, The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal makes a convincing case that the holidays have become a time for millions of older Americans to update their personal computing technology. To clarify, it’s not moms, dads, grandmas, or grandpas who are updating anything, but their children and grandchildren, who, home for the holidays, are shocked to find their loved ones still using, say, Internet Explorer 6!

Madrigal also has some good advice all you well-intentioned holiday visitors. Say, if dad doesn’t want anyone fooling with his machine, just tell him he won’t be able to watch funny fishing videos on YouTube with IE6 anymore. “Usually, by this point, most parents are begging for help, and you can extract excellent perquisites for your labor,” Madrigal writes. Also of note, Madrigal doesn’t suggest changing your family members’ browser provider.

“No putting Chrome instead of Firefox or Internet Explorer,” he directs. “Keep it simple.” Meanwhile, “Make sure to be on hand the first time they open up the browser to accept responsibility for the change on behalf of ‘The Cloud,’ which you will testify has started changing people's software without asking. When they ask you what The Cloud is, shake your head, and stare off into the distance.”

Read the whole story at The Atlantic »