A Recent Campaign To Get More Elderly Folk To Use The Internet Is Extremely Commendable, But Why The Need To Always Categorise People Based On How Old They Are
For the many of us who utilise the internet on a daily basis, it seems difficult to imagine spending just a day or two without all of the advantages it can give us. We are completely used to being able to find out about breaking news stories, contact friends instantly, locate an amazing amount of obscure information in moments through search engines and do countless other things online that it seems unbelievable that quite a lot of people in the UK who have never even touched a computer.
A newly released report claims that there are approximately six million individuals aged over 55 in the UK who don’t have a computer and presumably have never really considered finding out just what is possible. So now there is a big push to get the older generation online and surfing along with the rest of us.
It is very true that as people age they are much more likely to become lonely, often caused by mobility, vision or hearing problems. Of course if they can pay out for joint replacements, Laser eye surgery and a hearing aid, then their quality of life might change dramatically, but some could also have outlived many of their contemporaries, which reduces their social circle. So naturally, having a computer to go online and utilise instant messaging or Skype to interact with family or friends who live a distance away would make a huge difference to many people.
The campaign says that the younger generation who are computer literate should get involved with this campaign by sharing their skills with older relatives. This is a great idea and well intended, but I chuckle at the concept that ‘the young’ are so much more capable with computers than other people.
Before I go any further, I will explain that I am in my late forties, and I am a complete computer enthusiast. I ulitise my computer for writing, photo editing, audio editing, video creation and a whole lot more. I am always online and if I am away from my laptop for too long, I have to employ my mobile phone to catch up with what is taking place out in the world. I use Facebook, Twitter and email132013201320s for making contact with friends all over the planet, I shop and bank via the internet, I use the world wide web as my encyclopaedia, dictionary, atlas, telephone directory and newspaper. (I do start to wonder if there is a computer screen complaint like having ‘square eyes’ from watching too much television. I really do notice my eyesight getting worse and should probably consider Laser eye surgery as an alternative to having to keep spending money on new glasses.)
Anyway, the inference in this report is that younger people must know more about computers than I do! Well, if that’s accurate, when I ask an eighteen year old which ISP she utilises, I wouldn’t expect her to say that she has no idea what I mean!
I do agree that everyone should embrace the huge resources of the internet. The campaign should be encouraged. However, it does look like not everyone wants to be computer competent, and a few even seem to revel in remaining ignorant. Imagine a recent scene – there are ten of us in a bar for a meal one night, almost all aged between 48 and 52. Only four of us are even aware that there are different web browsers, and of the four of us, one has only stopped using Internet Explorer since her son installed another one. One male is convinced that life would be a lot better if we could just revert to using paper and pen for everything (he is also the kind of guy who says that DVDs are a bit modern and keeps wearing his decrepit reading glasses rather than invest in Laser eye treatment), and another male is forced to use a computer in the office and therefore won’t use one indoors. A married couple declare that they will never use Facebook because it panics them too much (yes, really!), and one female mostly uses eBay to spend her husband’s money, but doesn’t even have an individual email132013201320 address and uses her son’s address instead. And these are individuals who are too young to be a target for this campaign!
The opposite of this is my neighbour, aged 79, who asked me if I’d noticed the vehicle that had been left over the road for a few days, and then told me that because she’d been worried, she had Googled it to see if the name on the side was genuine and what the company did, and having done so, worked out that they were obviously carrying out some work in the empty house across the street.
A relation of mine, who is the same age as my neighbour, organises her life through the computer. She has serious problems with her eyes (for which there is no surgery or Laser eye treatment available), so has to alter the screen definition to be able to make things out, but she very cheerfully keeps in contact with numerous contacts around the world, authors articles for publication and still does work for the charity (for the elderly!) which she has been supporting for years.
I absolutely welcome the efforts to get many more people to use and understand the internet, but please, can we stop dividing everyone up by their age? I certainly will not be conforming to any age related assumptions about my behaviour any time soon!