Adult children often find themselves providing technology support services for their aging parents. Now there’s a new, research-based resource to help. The Connect Safely organization has recently published The Senior’s Guide to Online Safety. The publication contains important information, it’s free, and it’s simple to download as a PDF file. Adult children may want to print the booklet and share this … Continue reading
Filed under seniors online …
When Scary Virus Messages Appear on Your Aging Parent’s Screen…
Adult children who support aging parents and their personal computers need to be aware of a threat that can pop up on a computer anytime and cause major problems if a person does not understand how to handle the threat. Our parents need to hear about this potential problem. The other day I was working on … Continue reading
Will On-Demand Services Change the Way We Age?
A great article in the December 14, 2015 Washington Post, The On-Demand Economy: Changing the Way We Live As We Age, explains how many new online services such as food delivery, rides on demand. and home services are making life much easier for elders who want to remain independent as long as possible. Most of … 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
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
My Mom Gets an iPhone, #1
Like lots of other people this fall, I bought a new iPhone, the 4s model. My old 3G iPhone, which works just fine, went to my mother. My mom likes to look things up, something that smartphones do easily. She has envied family members with iPhones and Androids, starting a year or two ago right … Continue reading
U.S. Adults Use Social Media: As American as Apple Pie
The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently published new social media data, this time asking why American adults use social networks. From my point of view, keeping in touch with people is a grand old American tradition, as traditional as apple pie. Over the years whether it’s over the backyard fence, via snail mail … Continue reading
Grandma’s On Facebook
Join Facebook? For three years I avoided the site. I knew that some of my friends from work, church, and other activities were joining, but I just did not feel like it was a fit. My daughter, then in graduate school, used the social networking site, and she occasionally suggested I get started with Facebook. Still I refrained. … Continue reading
Seniors Getting Started with Computers
Check out Using a Computer for the First Time over at Aging Online. This post describes a Wall Street Journal article about homebound seniors and technology. Here are some blog posts from AsOurParentsAge about seniors and technology. Internet Cafe in Philadelphia Senior Center My Vision for Successful Senior Community Technology Training Technology and Senior Adults
More on Kids, Tech, Social Media, and Grandparents!
Great article in the Wall Street Journal about kids and grandparents and the ways they are communicating with one another. In her May 9, 2001 article, OMG! My Grandparents R My BFF!, reporter Molly Baker takes readers on a “magical mystery tour” highlighting the ways generations are interacting (and sometimes leaving out the generation in the middle). You … Continue reading
SeniorTech: Nothing to Fear but Fear …
Many of us find ourselves helping senior parents with technology. These days it goes hand-in-hand with even the most moderate caregiving assistance. Read Seniors Have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself, a post by Jamie Carracher over at the Aging Online blog. Carracher points out that most seniors want to learn as much as they … Continue reading
Senior Parent Tech Support-Advice I Wish I’d Discovered Ages Ago
This New York Times article, Five Tips for Helping Parents With Technology, provides some helpful tips for people who are troubleshooting the computers of senior parents. Gadgetwise blog reporter Paul Boutin offers common sense suggestions that can simplify over-the-phone family tech support, and it’s my view that you should consider following these ideas almost to the … Continue reading
Friends or Friends of Friends: What’s the Difference?
Many of our senior parents use Facebook, and they are having great fun. However it’s important to help them understand the importance of carefully accepting friends. Seniors need to understand that strangers should never be accepted as electronic friends, and understanding the difference between “friends” and “friends of friends” is critical. The potential for privacy … Continue reading
Facebook Privacy Settings Guide from Techlicious
Check out the Techlicious Facebook Privacy Guide, posted by Josh Kirschner on February 8, 2011 over at the Techlicious website. Maintaining control over privacy settings is a required and critical technology task for each Facebook user. Since sharing information is one of Facebook’s primary missions, the company wants to collect and share as much personal … Continue reading
Lots of Seniors on Social Networks!
According to a December 15, 2010 USA Today article, people over age 65 are the fastest growing group of social networking users. Seniors Surge on Social Networks, by Janis Lloyd, described Generations 2010 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a report that examines the variation in Internet and social networking experiences among various age groups. … Continue reading
Protecting A Senior Parent’s Online Privacy
Every time I visit my parents, I check their computers to be sure the privacy controls are on the maximum settings. Since we all use computers all the time, significant privacy concerns exist, but seniors have even more concerns, because they welcome and enthusiastically use the added communication opportunities that the Internet provides. Moreover, few … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 