-Mom's Computer class right before Christmas.

Look, we are busy working.

Everybody's learning.

Everybody's saying hi to everybody.

There you go.

Let's take a look over here.

-Franklin Roosevelt to death in year.

-What question are you asking?

-Franklin Roosevelt death year.

-What is it?

-That's it.

-Can you read that?

-Yes, I can read it.

I need this to see almost everything.

-What is the date?

What does it say?

-April 12, 45.

-Who came after Roosevelt?

Who was the next president?

-Truman.

-Very good.

Ask another question.

Have you okayed- -Who?

What?

Oh.

-You go to the back button.

Now try again.

-The thing is I don't know what to say.

Who succeeded Roosevelt?

Who came after Roosevelt?

How do you ask the right question?

-If you don't ask the right question, you won't get the correct answer, and you start over again.

There's no paper here to throw away.

-Okay.

Who succeeded Franklin Roosevelt?

Truman.

[laughter] [music] -Bravo.

Bravo.

[music] Here's the host from Howdy Doody.

Hello, kids.

Yoke, yoke.

My name is Elijah Dittersdorf.

I'm 60 years old.

Keep it to yourself.

I run a computer shop in Los Angeles called Mom's Computer, technology care for adult learners.

How did I name Mom's Computer?

Why did I choose Mom's Computer?

I was playing around with different ideas, like grandma's tech, granny tech.

It all sounded condescending and too specific.

Then I was just sitting out of nowhere, and I typed in Mom's Computer.

Lo and behold, it just popped to me on the page.

I just thought there was some magic there, and it sounded fun for me to say.

It just sounded fun.

In the state of California, nobody has the word moms and computer matched together.

I was like, this is a sign from God.

Let me get my glasses for that.

What is an online bulletin board now of a million apps?

Before that, we had something called the Penny Saver.

It was a little teeny newspaper that would go from your hometown.

It was just like a black and white paper.

In there, you could put on there, you could write, I have a couch for sale, or I have something for sale.

It was a community marketplace.

Craigslist became that online early.

Craigslist also had something, and this is the reality.

You've got to think that's not legal anymore.

They had a dating part of their website, meeting-to-meeting, intimate encounters.

Another one was called After Hours Download Oops, we can help, 24 hours.

That means somebody's online looking at a nudie picture.

Now it's on their desktop, on their Windows XP, and they don't know how to get rid of it.

They're freaking out because everybody's to wake up in six hours.

They would go to Craigslist.

I put up a couple of ads to see if it would work.

I said, tech care for seniors and adult learners.

I clicked it.

It went live.

Within 15 minutes, my mailbox was flooded.

-This is embarrassing.

It was like a weird sound at the very top of your computer where it has all this blink, blink, blinking.

-There was 400 porn pop-ups all over the screen.

He had gone to one early website.

It was bing, bing.

All looked very legitimate, grown up, mature, but there was just pop-ups everywhere.

-Look at this.

You've got all this crap up here at the top of the thing.

He thought, no wonder it's been hacked.

With all the porn you've been looking for, he got rid of my virus.

He gave me a shot.

I cleaned it all up.

-I got rid of it.

I tried to give this speech.

I said, listen, if you want to do that, get another computer and do that on that different computer.

That added Craigslist.

After 12 hours, I had to shut it down because I had 1,500 legitimate responses.

To this day, 15 years later, some of those are still customers.

Okay, let me go over here.

Oh, I need to do my background.

I usually have my background here.

Yes, that's better.

Carrie Johnson, how are you doing?

-Oh, hanging in there.

Just having trouble with the cell phone.

-What's going on?

You're not getting any cellular service?

-There's no service, but I'm getting full bars of WiFi.

-Yes, I want to see that.

I want to see that, Ms.

Johnson.

We're going to have to re-put in your WiFi information.

-Is this going to erase all the data and music and stuff?

-No, network settings.

Make sure it says network settings because we don't want to lose any data.

That's probably the most important thing.

-Yes, I'll back up for sure.

-Other things are people can't believe the information coming from the computer is accurate, and they want you to fix the computer.

Imagine you're watching a television show and you don't like the ending.

They think the computer tech could actually go into the computer and change the ending and reshoot the ending.

What happens on that screen, people take very seriously.

When you read crazy stuff, you're like, who's going to believe that?

The answer is everyone.

[music] -I had an account that was basically dormant.

All the account did was receive a check every month.

One day, I think there was an email from a job search, and it said, let us send you a deposit, and then you can do this, you can do that.

They were really, really angling to try to get some bank information.

Suddenly, unbeknownst to me, there were two small purchases made.

Then I was having trouble getting into that account.

I was talking to Citibank, and I said, tell me what the balance is in the account.

It was missing $25,000.

With technology, we've never been so vulnerable.

You're afraid to answer the phone.

You're afraid to answer an email because you're liable to lose everything.

That's ludicrous.

-One of my mom's friends, she thought that it was her grandson who was being kidnapped in Mexico, and they wanted the money.

Then she remembered, wait a minute, I saw him yesterday.

He's not in Mexico.

What is this call about?

I get upset when things don't work.

Sometimes I call Elijah, and he comes over and talks me off the whatever.

-One of the things Elijah teaches in his class every two weeks was, if you don't know what it is, don't click on it.

-I have a feeling, knowing some of you and looking at you, that you invented the dark web.

-I think we can agree it's advancing quicker than a lot of seniors are willing to absorb or grasp onto.

-Here comes the fun part now.

I'm going to open an email.

What do you call this blank part in here?

-Content.

-Or the body.

I don't know why they use the word the body.

I don't see anything that's in the shape of a body.

-I am retired for probably the last 10 years.

My career encompassed two careers.

One was an automotive technician.

I was responsible for some of the mayor's and the council's cars, which were hybrids or fully electric.

I was intimidated, and I really maxed out on a lot of the technology that I was motivated to try and learn more of.

-When I was only around, oh God, in my 50s or whatever, and I turned a couple of jobs down because I didn't know the fundamentals of certain things they wanted me to do.

That was very trying for me.

It still frightens me to know everything is changing so much with the technology, and I can't keep up with it.

I gave up on the whole thing.

In other words, it really threw me for a loop at that point that I had [cries] to give up something I really loved.

That would be designing, because I loved my artwork and stuff, and I still do, but I don't do it anymore.

Long gone, retired.

I just don't want to grow old.

-Okay, let's pay attention.

Otherwise, you're going to detention, Michael.

No cutting up in class.

-[?]

than my daughter.

I needed change.

I love to make changes in my life.

I have forever.

[background conversation] -How would I say it?

I've come to the conclusion that I can't fight it, so I might as well join it.

For a lot of people, I think, that are my age bracket and grew up in a totally different world, we all have to accept that.

It comes with a lot of different adjustments that have to be made when you're an older person.

-Let me call Rick Ferrara.

He wasn't answering, so I was worried.

That's the other thing about technology and senior care.

Appointments aren't normal.

You have to triple-check up to the very last minute.

Things change.

They are so hungry for a visit and so hungry for attention that they don't miss the appointment.

-This is Rick Ferrara.

-Rick called me yesterday.

He desperately needed an appointment.

He's not picking up the phone.

That could mean a million things.

Rick's a 77-year-old guy.

His printer stopped working.

It could really mean that Rick didn't wake up this morning.

I remember it like yesterday.

You always remember what you lost, sometimes more than what you've gained.

When I was eight years old, my father passed away.

It was a middle-of-the-night thing.

My mother was sleeping, and he went to the bathroom, and at 37 years old, fell down and passed away.

Heart attack.

That gave a greater spiritual question to everything.

How do you hold onto them?

As you know, the world is moving so rapidly.

There's something about humans trying to procreate and move themselves into the next generation that naturally starts eradicating the past.

That being said, when you can make somebody feel super relevant in the world as it is now, young person or senior, you have created a thousand more lifetimes for that person.

-It's a confidence booster that I can maybe fix something myself or troubleshoot something myself, like on the phone or on the laptop or even programming a TV or something like that.

-There you go.

You're going to click that envelope.

I think he's got to go to work tomorrow and start making some money.

He's good at this.

This is ridiculous hanging out all day pretending he's retired.

-There's the sheriff's department.

-Now you've got it.

-Technology has helped me stay sharp.

They're like a medicine to me.

The computer that Elijah found for me on Amazon, he created a whole new world for me with my Adele.

Not the singer Adele, but Adele.

-What is AI?

What does that stand for?

What does AI stand for?

-Artificial Intelligence.

-Actually, it stands for Arthur and Irving's Deli, I was going to order some sandwiches.

Arthur and Irving's, it's right down the block.

They have great sandwiches.

-The fact is, how dangerous is it?

We don't know, do we?

-I love how all of a sudden, us seniors are like, how dangerous it was.

The first time you can get an AOL email in 1996, and you just, oh, yes, take all my information.

Now we've got like an hour left to live.

We're puffing up.

We're like, but it's dangerous.

-I think, especially women, get old-ladied all the time.

Your problems are diminished.

Anything you say is diminished.

Your value is diminished.

I think with Elijah, he almost values your opinion even more, like that your experience is really worth something and that you have something interesting to contribute, which is really lovely.

There's an outfit.

What day are you coming down for cake and iced coffee?

-Don't threaten me with cake and coffee in the middle of the week.

I can't beat that.

Let's say Wednesday.

Pulling up to my appointment.

-All right.

Have a nice appointment.

Talk to you later.

Bye.

-I've got 40 years of a life on various computers and everything.

One of the things he did was he put it all the external drives are in one place, et cetera.

I have to go through them and find, because I've got a lot of manuscripts.

I've got a cat book trilogy.

I have to write book three.

It's just becoming active and doing things.

-Feeling important and teachable is truly the fountain of youth.

If I can leave somebody laughing at the end of a session, that's the gift.

At the very end, you just know that we are both marching in the same direction.

The best thing you can do, you can't say at the end of the phone call, see you later.

That's an insult.

I've said that to people, and they're like, well, you don't know that.

I always say, bye for now.

For now.

If humans are really just a skin suit of love, hopefully, then I'll meet you again.

I will be there again, and we'll talk about how to cut and paste again.

It just might not look like it does today.

All right, Fren.

Say hi to Carolyn, and I'll see you tomorrow.

-I'm going to call Carolyn right now and tell her she said, I don't know if you'll remember me.

-That's ridiculous.

I remember her like yesterday.

-I'll tell her.

Thanks again.

-All right, doctor.

I'll see you tomorrow at 6.

Bye for now.

It's pretty scary.

It takes over your whole screen.

You're not really sure you got them.

You're on the internet.

Do not call that scam number.

The easiest, quickest way to fix this is to power it down first.

You going to find the power button- -Oh, I didn't.

I hit that.

I hit that.

-You want to hold the power button down.

Just keep holding it for a good 15, 20, 30 seconds.

Now it's off.

That's the power button.

Now it's off.