It never ceases to amaze me that for someone so quick and savvy with her texting, i- messaging, downloading music and skype applications, when asked to help me with a basic iPod function my daughter is sent into paroxysms of near blind fury, carefully guarded, but ruinous nonetheless.

I am a newbie when it comes to all of this highly sophisticated technology but I enjoy the global communication perks it gives me which I take advantage of daily and the storage capacity I  now have on nifty little units called dongles, plus the ability to scan, download, stream, sing, dance to or simply watch almost anything when I “Google” a carefully worded query.

As a mother and eternal student I only give scant attention to the “monkey see, monkey do” attitude of the many superficially savvy, young adults around me.

I prefer to at least have a nodding acquaintance with what it is I am expecting of my computer so that when is starts to go wild on me I can shut it down in moments and start again without losing data or my temper.

On the rare occasion I get brain fluffies and cannot find the notes I always take when my children instruct me on the miraculous wonders of our modern age, I have to go to my youngest because she is usually the nearest live resource.

By the time I’ve given up the task I am attempting it has become a rather complex, but not impossible, procedure for a young twenty year old…with patience…to tackle for me.

For example I needed Christmas music off my iPod and other music on it!  I’d managed to take it off but couldn’t work out how to replace it.

After several failed keystrokes my daughter said,

“I’ve never seen a computer do this before, I have no idea what’s going on with your iTunes…I give up!”

I will give her this though, once I’ve tactfully left the immediate area where I run the risk of being in direct line of fire, she’ll come and find me, which is only a few steps in any direction in our little flat, and say,

“There I’ve done it!” and hand me back my surround sound stereo in a 2×6 contraption.

Now comes the tricky part,

“Well, could you show me how you did it so that the next time I won’t have to irk you?” I ask nicely.

I duck out of the room again dodging verbal missiles.

“Come back and watch,’ she says quietly, “watch I said,” she repeats.  I think I irritate her when I get out my note book, “it’s not that difficult Mum, all you do is….”

But for me, who doesn’t update or change music on a regular basis, I insist on my pen and paper.

“Why do you have to write it down and what are all these hashtags?” she asks of me, now subtly referring to my new skill…Tweeting!  “Why can’t you hash your words after the Tweet?”

“If I do I may not be maximising the limited number of characters I’m allowed in my Twitter box,”  I explain, loving the fact that Tweeting plays to the poet in me.

“That makes sense,” she says, “though I still don’t see how it works!”

Well I do!  I did my research, conducted a test and collated my results!

My daughter’s in her other home now so before I go to her, does anyone know how to move the icons around on the front of the iPod?  Something about making them ‘toggle’?