Seniors on Computers with Kids
As past readers of this blog know, I am enthusiastic about promoting the use of computers and the Internet by senior citizens. The possibility that many of us will live to 100 years of age is greater than it has ever been in human history. Yet, most of us who have reached our 65th birthday grew up in a society that considered the age of 65 to be the beginning of the end of life. Now, our understanding of health, wellness and medical advances can encourage us to consider 65 as just the end of the beginning!
I am one of the fortunate baby boomers who wandered into the world of technology almost by accident. Somewhere along the line I was destined to become a professional educator. Being a successful and effective educator after the 70’s pretty much meant that you had to start using computers. I also inherited a desire to be really good at whatever I did. In the mid-seventies I realized that computers would be to the future what writing had been to the past! By the time the Internet started appearing in schools I had moved on to college teaching and administration. One day a friend in the data processing department called me and said, “McCluskey, get over to my office. I have something you need to see!”
When I arrived at his office a short time later, he seated me in front of an old IBM personal computer, shoved his telephone into some kind of cradle device connected to the computer with a wire, and hit a couple of keys on the keyboard. I heard a hissing, beeping and quacking noise coming from somewhere and, eventually, a window opened up on the screen. My professor friend said, “McCluskey, that is a ‘web browser’.” Well, I’ll spare you the details of the next hour. I will tell you that I went back to my office, assembled everyone nearby and told them, “I just saw something that is going to change the world.” Little did I know.
Thus I became an evangelist for computing and the Internet. There have been lots of ups and downs, and a few times when I almost lost my faith. I have never failed to understand that, like religion, the Internet in the hands of bad people can be used for bad things. Nevertheless, again like religion, its potential for good far outweighs its dangers.
I have concluded that the great challenge for our aging population is not health. If anything, it is caused by our health, plus the expectations about getting older that we learned as we were growing up: that growing older is just the process of dying. When we see ourselves as emotionally and physically disabled, our social networks start to break down. Some of this breakdown is real: our spouse passes away, our friends get sick, friends die, our children grow up and have lives of their own, or we move. If we fail to realize that society and technology have created new and exciting ways for us to enjoy the extra years longevity gives us, our outdated expectations will kill us, mentally, emotionally, and then physically.
For this to happen is a real tragedy, because there is truly a new potential future for our aging population. It involves seniors on computers, aging at home, remaining a part of society, continuing to be employed and being really connected. Clearly, seniors on computers are going to play a large role in this future. Senior citizens technology, especially an affordable computer and Internet connection, provides the conduit to new and old connections, new friends and new purposes for living well. My evangelistic message always ends the same way: make converts! Find older people you care about and nourish them with technology like you would nourish them with food if they were starving. Stay in touch with this column for ways you can do that. Send me your questions or comments. I am really interested in what you think!
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