I keep meeting people who are surprised about the CoVid-19 pandemic and the social distancing strategies required to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. This is an especially common musing among adult children caregivers whose elderly parents are now isolated and without any visitors as assisted living and long term care communities try to … Continue reading
Tagged with technology …
Caregiving in the Time of CoVid-19, #2: We Are All Caregivers
In this time of the novel Coronavirus, caregiving takes on a new context. Now it’s not just our aging parents or our children. Instead, we are all becoming caregivers to one another. In the CoVid-19 crisis, we are discovering that what we do as individuals has an effect on everyone and everything else — though … Continue reading
Older Elders and the End of Life
If you are an adult child with ninetysomething parents, you are probably familiar with the drill. Like me you may receive phone calls from an elderly parent a couple of times each week, usually asking a question, describing a problem, or just expressing anxiety. Or you may hear from caregivers about a problem — a … 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
Cyber Seniors Documentary: Well Done!
This afternoon at the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) conference in Washington, DC, I saw clips from a documentary, Cyber-Seniors, about teenage volunteers in Toronto who work with elders — people in their mid to late 80s and older — and the rich clarity of their interactions. Many of these people retired before computers appeared … Continue reading
Is There a Digital Divide Among Seniors?
Adult children who want to help their aging parents learn to use more technology may want to read the April 2014 Pew Internet organization report, Older Adults and Technology Use. This fascinating document, freely available online, describes various groups of technology-using seniors and explains how they use or do not use computers and devices. It also offers … 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
Increasing Numbers of Seniors in Social Networking World
Those of us with seniors and elders in our lives should continually be aware that a growing number of people over 65 are enthusiastically latching on to social networking sites and using them on a fairly regular basis. This amazing graph depicts the percentage of adults at various ages who use social media sites, and … Continue reading
FTC Looking for Ideas to Stop the Likes of Rachel from Credit Services
Are you tired of receiving calls from Rachel at credit card services? Older seniors, your parents perhaps, feel helpless when they receive these manipulative, and illegal telephone calls. During the last few years of her life, my husband’s mother sometimes became quite distressed when she answered the phone and heard Rachel or one of her … 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
Very Basic Rules for Aging Parent Digital Devices
Are you helping to maintain and secure a computer for your aging parent? Do you find yourself spending lots and lots of time explaining why NOT to click on a button or an update screen, even when windows seem to swoop in and personally invite a user to click (or worse download)? Here is an … 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
Exercise, Computer Use, and Cognitive Impairment
A research study published in the May 2012 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings finds an association between computer activities, physical exercise and reduced mild cognitive impairment. The article Computer Activities, Physical Exercise, Aging, and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Population-Based Study (PDF) reports on an ongoing population study that randomly sampled 926 individuals in Olmsted, Minnesota … 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
When and Why Seniors Use Technology
I recommend checking out this short piece, Help Seniors Stay Connected Through Technology, published in The Tennessean. Written by Ann Bishop, the article suggests ways to help seniors and I might add, aging parents, engage with technology and take more advantage of communication opportunities. Best Quote Technology should be a two-part gift, where in addition … Continue reading
Removing Racist and Hateful Comments: A Simple Relevancy Test
After the jury announced its verdict in New Jersey I watched Associated Press video statement read by Tyler Clementi’s father. Sad and clearly with a heavy heart, he nevertheless looked to the future in a way that most of us could not have done had we lost a child the way he lost Tyler. Then I … Continue reading
iPad for Dad, #21: An Easy-to-Use Speaker
My dad loves to listen to music, mostly classical, but other musical genres as well. Mostly he fires up his stereo, a boom-box, or the local classical music radio station. Now, he has a third option — listening with his iPad. For Christmas we gave Dad the iHome rechargeable portable speaker for iPad. The iPad itself … 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
Scams and Seniors: Redux
I cannot get Rachel from Credit Card Services to stop calling me. She has such a lovely voice, and she always tells me that there is no problem with my credit card. But then she continues on, encouraging me to talk to one of her colleagues about lowering credit card interest rates. Moreover, it will … Continue reading
Neat Stats on Smartphone Ownership
So you have a senior parents who’s interested in smartphone? Here’s a story, and some interesting statistics to boot. Last Wednesday I dropped my iPhone on the driveway. I’ve managed to avoid such a mishap for more than two-and-a-half years, but Wednesday was my day of reckoning, I guess. The touch screen shattered like safety … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 