One of the great things to emerge from this time of social distancing and quarantine is the astonishing amount of online communication that is going on each day. In the course of the week, I get at least one email from my parents’ retirement/assisted living community (so far so good), dozens of messages from a … Continue reading
Filed under digital life …
Caregiving in the Time of CoVid-19, #6: Accessing the Free Operas at the Met
If you are like me you were excited to learn that the Metropolitan Opera is posting past productions to live stream. during the early weeks of social distancing for CoVid-19. Many of the operatic productions were first shown at the Met’s Live in HD move theatre program. Now they are coming into our homes, and … Continue reading
Help Elders Understand More: A History of the Way the Web Works
My parents and other elders often ask me questions about the Web — the way it works, how it really got started, how it’s evolved, and how why it changes so much. I have the answers to many of these questions and willingly take the time to explain, but often wish I could hand the … Continue reading
More on Fraud: AARP’s Fraud Watch and Other Helpful Sites
Check out Michelle Singletary’s Washington Post column, Let’s Band Together to Stop Scammers, a terrific piece that appeared today (September 28, 2014) and a perfect follow-up to my most recent blog post, Windows Security Fraud Phone Calls. My piece shared a recent experience with a telephone caller who tried to get me to share personal information because of … Continue reading
How Does Your Life Resemble a Millennial’s Life?
If you are an older adult or an adult child, you probably know at least one millennial family member who was born in 1981 or later. Millennials are digital natives, born into a world that is markedly different from the world in which we all grew up. So when it comes to life, they also have … Continue reading
Dad’s New iPad: How We Decided What to Buy – iPad for Dad #25
I finally figured out what iPad model to purchase for my 90-year-old dad as a Christmas 2013 present, and I thought I’d share my decision-making process here, just in case others are dealing with the same conundrum. My mom is under strict instructions to keep him away from this blog (he is a regular reader) … Continue reading
Time for a New iPad for Dad — iPad for Dad #24
It is time to purchase a new iPad for my father. If you have followed this blog for the past several years you know that three years ago we (my husband, my daughter, my son-in-law, and me) purchased an iPad for my father’s birthday. The iPad for Dad project, beginning in May 2010, has been an … Continue reading
Wireless: A Primer for the Rest of Us (Including Aging Parents)
When we install wireless access in our homes or in the home of aging parents, it’s common for most of us to use it intensively while understanding few of the details about the equipment and how various components work. We usually know when it’s not working, but that’s about it. Bottom line? We should all learn … Continue reading
Whose Eyes Are Checking Out That Digital Content?
In his recent post over at the Changing Aging blog, Kavan Peterson describes a short video, Forwarders. Intended as a parody of people who continuously forward e-mail, the video reinforces stereotypes about elders and aging. It’s sad that this short film focuses solely on one older adult, especially since so many people of all ages … Continue reading
50 Percent of Older Adults are on the Internet: Pew
In another of the excellent surveys from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, data show that more than 50 percent of older adults, 65 and over, use the Internet or e-mail. The survey was conducted via telephone interviews during the month of April 2012. This survey is significant because the older adult age group had experienced … Continue reading
Technology: It Even Transforms Elders
The other day, at a pre-Mother’s Day weekend event, I sat in a room with hundreds of seniors — mothers, grandmothers, dads, grandfathers — and guess what? A good many of them had smartphones. I was amused to observe, that a fair number of people in that large room were texting or at least checking … Continue reading
Teens Teach Seniors Tech
Many of us know that our parents are eager to learn a lot about technology. My parents enjoy attending computer classes at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Virginia — and they learn a lot at these classes. Read Teens Teach Seniors How to Use Computers in the Palm Beach Post News. The student teachers at this … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age 