by Isabel
I’d like to share part of an email I received from a member of the community about using the Internet:
I belong to an egroup of college classmates, which we started four years or so ago with only a handful, but which has expanded now to more than half of the class. The medium led us to reconnect with one another. Many have settled in different parts of the world but mostly in the USA. We are closer now than when we were in college. Actually, it is a case of rediscovering the true person in each one or the person that has evolved since graduation….
I’m sharing this because as you said in one of your blog posts, some parents are asking their kids to do this for them….
…let’s hope that the membership (of the mailing list) grows and the adult members of the community try not to be intimidated by the computer or that their children not be intimidating when they teach the tricks to their seniors.
This email illustrates two things. One is the Internet’s potential and capacity to bring people together. And the other is the the unfortunate but predominant assumption that seniors cannot or will not use the Internet.
Senior moments
We have all heard of seniors refusing to get a mobile phone or unable to operate a computer on their own — and sometimes even get a good laugh out of such stories. It seems that the older one gets, the more intimidated by technology s/he tends to be. But why should seniors be deprived of the ease and convenience that come with using the Internet? Why should anyone, for that matter?
People who think that the Internet is only for the young — i.e. just another toy — are perhaps thinking of such uses as online gaming, online auctions, instant messaging (IM), chatting, and yes, maybe even blogging. This technology would surely spoil the young if all it does is make things easy and convenient. It would teach them only to value the virtual over the real, to take the fastest and easiest way, and to forego human interaction by hiding behind their busy-ness (i.e. being busy).
Here is something to think about. When I sent out welcome emails to the members of the mailing list, I got two separate unsolicited replies (that is, emails that I did not ask for or expect). From whom? Not the Internet-savvy teens. Not even the 21-30 age set who were the majority of survey respondents. Surprisingly — or not surprisingly, to me — these emails were sent by senior members of the community. No “tricks,” no high-tech gadgets. They were simply using the Internet at its simplest, as it is most widely used, and perhaps even as it was originally intended: to connect with another human being.
