General Chat

I have a few problems with all this new technology and some of my friends won't even try things out saying " oh no, couldn't do that" etc.

Thursday I went to visit a friend I have met through GR. Her lovely mum was sat in her chair on her IPad and she is 99 years old next month.
I thought that was great to see. I haven't even seen one before and there she was happily describing what she can do on it.
Certainly spurred me on to learn as much as I can.
:-D :-D

I work in a library where we offer free starter courses for the over 50's.
As they are held during the day, most people are past retirement age.
I honestly think that the older a person is, the more willing they are to learn.

More often than not, it's people in the 45 -55yr bracket who find it difficult and always seem to ask staff for help... invariably it's a job application!

I worked for a large company and was the first divisional office in the country to go computerized. I had a large input into the programmimg required and then taught managers from other regions when we went national with it.

Then I retired and the internet " happened " Few years later my son dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century and I didn't have a clue. So I signed up at the library for a beginners course for something like £18. There's so much to learn so I hope I live as long as my friends mum to use it all LOL

My mother is well into her eighties, try and take her laptop of her she would kill you ,she loves it as she can keep in contact with all the family and freinds

Robert, thats brilliant

So different from some just sitting in the chair napping the days away, like my OH

:-D :-D

Brilliant:))....l so wish my sister would atleast try using her laptop....grrrrr

There are three signs of old age. The first is one's loss of memory, the other two I forget.
:-)

hi lm 71yrs old,l had a computor as a present ,a couple of years ago,l didnt even know how to switch it on, l spent all xmas trying to what to do....help was at hand.l joined evening classes.my local council runs for OAP...(free) so l was up and away. l am doing my family tree ,and if l get in a mess,you lovely people always sort it out ,,l would like to thank everyone who has helped me,and for finding Rellis l never even knew about,
regards Bette

Good for you Bette. My son tries to help me at times but he goes through it so quickly that by the time he leaves my brain is scrambled and I am back to square one.
But he is impressed with what I have done on my tree so I cant be that bad. If at first I dont succeed etc :-D

An uncle of mine developed quite bad Parkinsons at 80 (he is 88 now). He loved writing to people, but writing was getting indecipherable. He could use a keyboard so decided to buy a computer and he has mastered it much better than me.

My boss occasionally texts me and asks for a reply. If I cannot speak to him and really have to text him, I go shooting off home and ask my son to reply each time. Quite embarrassing. But only 10 months to retirement and think I can cope. Then I will get my own mobile phone and learn this strange new art form :-D ;-)

Naughty to say really but my step g.dau has 3 nans. Me being the only one with a mobile, drives and is on line. She thinks I'm cool.
Love it.
Now if only I can master copy & paste :-D :-D

can you really not c& p Barb? very easy

highlight what you want to c&p then go to Edit - click on "copy" then take the cursor to where you wish to paste, right click on mouse and select "paste" - job done - simples ;-)

Thanks Ann I will practise it. :-D :-S

As I got deafer and deafer I lthought I'd better learn about emails, signed up for a class and found I should l have first learnt about computers! Signed up for a computer class but was by then too deaf to follow it, and had no computer to practice on - someone gave me a v. old computer - so old I couldn't get a printer to fit it! and my daughter gave me a text book from the college where she was working with which I learnt a lot of word skills - and then when that computer packed up I bought a real one - this was about ten years ago and I'm now 78 - life began again! deafness meant no radio, no telephone v. limited social talk - and suddently it was a new world opening.. And new interests, discovered geneaology! It is a real bonus for the handicapped and housebound, please all of you encourage your older family to use them.

wonderful Elizabeth - good for you!!!!!

I'm 72 and been "on t'net" since 2001. Son gave me his old Windows 98 pc and I taught myself how to use it with help from some "Help Lines" via Email - son and ex mil mates. I use Face Book as do a lot of my old ex mil mates - some 2 or 3 years older than me.

If any of you still learning why not do as I did? I created "Rons PC User Friendly Manual" and as I learnt summat new I wrote down the method in very simple terms. If I had to ask son or a mate for advice I'd print off their reply and add it to my manual. Wife started using PC recently so I'm having to update my manual for her. A manual is much better than 'sticky' notes.

Dont forget tho any 'newbies' to make sure you have decent Anti Virus and Firewall protection and know how to run weekly AV scans etc and, of course, wot to do if you get bugged.

Ron

I'm afraid that I am an absolute technophobe! In fact I can't understand howI'm posting on these boards! I was a happy librarian until our system was computerised, and left my job shortly after!
I don't have, nor want, a mobile phone, and really struggle having to programme our DVD
My very savvy Hubby keeps me right with the workings of my laptop, and if anything goes wrong, its....HUSBAND!

Ronald, I think what you are doing is brilliant - thinking of publishing at all??

I've really had no choice regarding 'being computerized' .... very much a case of 'if you can't learn it, you can't use it, so you ain't got a job'' !!.

In the early 90's I decided to take a 'leap of faith', and applied for (and got) a place on what is called an 'SSADM' course ((can be Wiki'd,lol)). Scraped through, but passed.

Didn't use the course much afterwards (typical),but what it did teach me, and I use the system today, is how to 'break down procedures' and present them in an easily understandable format ... much I think in the way you are doing it - without background! Outstanding, but then .... ex Mil? I'd expect nothing less :-D

I am really impressed with everyone here and their reasons for getting IT literate!
Our reason is the most obvious of all....
We were in our late 30's when our daughters began using computers at school.
After a while we realised that a home PC would eventually be an essential tool for them, so in the early/mid 1990's we bought our first computer
We had no IT training. We had to teach ourselves in order to keep up with their homework ect.
As technology moves on, so do we. ( with help from the girls)