Elderly deserve our help, patience
I don’t yet consider myself elderly, though, in some circles, I DO qualify for senior citizen discounts. I also don’t consider myself a technophobe, but, without a doubt, my children can outperform me on anything that plugs in or uses batteries.
When I came to work at The Enterprise, news stories were still being typed on typewriters -- electric typewriters, but typewriters nonetheless. I still remember how intimidating those first huge, awkward, mainframe computers were and how afraid I was that I was going to punch the wrong button and break one and have to pay the company back the multi-thousand dollar cost of the sophisticated machinery.
My mother, who also worked at a small weekly newspaper for years, retired more than 20 years ago, before fax machines became a regular (and now almost outdated) part of business activity. She’s mystified that documents can move over telephone lines and doesn’t like the concept because she doesn’t want anybody to know “her business.”
The moral of this somewhat circuitous tale is, times change, and we have to as well, in order to keep up with our world and what is going on in it.
In recent weeks, I’ve had multiple telephone conversations with, primarily older, readers who are upset about changes in our reporting on stock market activity and our failure to include their one particular, frequently obscure, stock in our daily printed listings.
The majority of the callers share three characteristics: they are mostly 75 or older, they don’t have a computer and they don’t want to get a computer or learn how to work one.
I’ve told more than one of those readers that they don’t know what they are missing. Computers, and Internet access, basically put the world at your fingertips. They are tools that open whole new worlds to explore. What a shame that lack of access, lack of knowledge and out-and-out fear deprive these people of all they could learn and do and know . . . even at their age.
So, even though it’s after Christmas, think about spending some one-on-one time with Grandma or Grandpa next time you can find a moment. Drag your laptop along and/or drive them to the nearest WiFi location and show them what they are missing. And remember, whether they admit it or not, they will be resistant and afraid. Be patient, and persistent.
I may never learn what tasks all the buttons on the universal television remote perform, but I’d hate to die knowing I’d never had the chance to Google.
When I came to work at The Enterprise, news stories were still being typed on typewriters -- electric typewriters, but typewriters nonetheless. I still remember how intimidating those first huge, awkward, mainframe computers were and how afraid I was that I was going to punch the wrong button and break one and have to pay the company back the multi-thousand dollar cost of the sophisticated machinery.
My mother, who also worked at a small weekly newspaper for years, retired more than 20 years ago, before fax machines became a regular (and now almost outdated) part of business activity. She’s mystified that documents can move over telephone lines and doesn’t like the concept because she doesn’t want anybody to know “her business.”
The moral of this somewhat circuitous tale is, times change, and we have to as well, in order to keep up with our world and what is going on in it.
In recent weeks, I’ve had multiple telephone conversations with, primarily older, readers who are upset about changes in our reporting on stock market activity and our failure to include their one particular, frequently obscure, stock in our daily printed listings.
The majority of the callers share three characteristics: they are mostly 75 or older, they don’t have a computer and they don’t want to get a computer or learn how to work one.
I’ve told more than one of those readers that they don’t know what they are missing. Computers, and Internet access, basically put the world at your fingertips. They are tools that open whole new worlds to explore. What a shame that lack of access, lack of knowledge and out-and-out fear deprive these people of all they could learn and do and know . . . even at their age.
So, even though it’s after Christmas, think about spending some one-on-one time with Grandma or Grandpa next time you can find a moment. Drag your laptop along and/or drive them to the nearest WiFi location and show them what they are missing. And remember, whether they admit it or not, they will be resistant and afraid. Be patient, and persistent.
I may never learn what tasks all the buttons on the universal television remote perform, but I’d hate to die knowing I’d never had the chance to Google.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 1:28 PM
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