Older people the Internet, computers and phones.

As an old geezer I have found it's an attitude of want to know rather than you think you need to know - I purchased a Spectum in early 80's thinking I should need to know how to use one - - I played a few games then started night school to learn how to write code - I didn't last long - As soon as I sat down and teacher started talking my eyes glazed over.

Not long after that my Spectum went in loft and it's there today -

Then in mid 90's I wanted one because I could look up details on my hobby - so off to PC world and came home with a Packard Bell - It was great - I clicked every menu and sub menu to see what it did and soon I was doing well, although on some things in word I got stuck so rang wife who was a secretary working with PC's - can I do this I asked - No don't think so -- My mind frame was if I can think of it then people who wrote programs must be 10 miles above my head so started poking and soon enough I was getting into this computer lark.

So now I can find my way around most things provided it's not to technical, but even now I think I must be stuck in my ways as I have rolled back windows 10 to W7 - I just can't abide the tiles stuff although given time I am sure I could grasp it - Thing is I don't use a smart phone although I have one to take out with me for "Emergencies"

My wife spent years on the PC at work but now she is afraid to touch mine because she is scared of breaking it - although she will sit there all night on a Nexus 7 looking up where she can buy more plant's.

So to summerise.

I wanted to know which is a very good stimulant in using a PC

When I thought I needed to know I found it wasn't enough.
 
My parents struggled through Windows XP for years, they never actually understood how the file structures worked and how everything sat together inside the operating system. They could do basic things but as soon as they went into a screen they didn't recognise they were utterly lost and the logic that all windows and menus work in the same way just seemed to pass them by.

I advised they got an iPad 2 not long after I got one on launch day. Was the best thing they ever did...
 
scorza said:
All I can say is thank goodness for the iPad. My 87 year old Grandma, who never used a computer in her life has picked up email skills no problem - can even take pictures and send them to me. Meanwhile some much more computer literate family members struggle to do basic stuff on Android.
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Agreed. My nan, in her 80s as well, got an iPad and Internet last year. After a couple of false starts she is facebooking like a pro. She used to struggle with just a normal flip phone before. Just being able to touch what you want and having the screen space to see what it actually is makes a massive difference.
 
Bassmansam said:
What if that person hasn't worked in an office? Tradesman for example.
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We had contractor in last year, a 70 year old economics guy/analyst. He couldn't even use word, or print. I just don't get how someone in that position had never needed to learn how to use basic office functions on a computer before.
 
Unfortunately am part of the generation born in to the computer age so all came very naturally and find it astonishing older folk cannot get their cannisters around it and hate my ignorance for that.
 
Big lols

It was OLD people who INVENTED and developed the modern computer !

A seismic shift in technology for the age.

What seismic shifts in technology have the "Young uns" achieved ?

Can't be computers coz they are still the same.

I'm 54 and use my smart phone as a watch and to make PHONE CALLS.
I don't do texting as it's arrogant !

Have you ever thought that old biddy that just can't grasp it might actually like your company ? <-- Company as in attention
 
:-p

At least I've made it ! (Survived) With most of my marbles intact !

You have a very rocky road ahead still to negotiate

Best of luck !!

;-)
 
I am nearly 63 and bought my first desktop PC 286-12 in 1991 ish when I was 39. Built my first one a couple of years after.

I think current 60 year olds who have had some technical experience and have worked with computers are probably quite literate. Even compared with teens and twenties who can use them but know nothing of how they work.

Possibly a generation older may have more difficulty or those who retired without ever using one in the workplace.

As for phones, I have little interest and rarely carry one around with me.
 
my Grandad says "over" at the end of every sentence on his mobile phone (a Nokia 3310). We've told him he doesn't need to but I guess old habits...

He also has never had a PC/laptop and has a landline phone with the circular dialer thing.
 
My mum is quite scared to try new technology. Once I show her how to use stuff, she tends to grasp it decently afterwards.
 
Things is, in 40 years time people will be fine with technology as it will be our generation. We who have been used to technology. It wont be the same as it is now with people who were not brought up with PC's.
 
mccarf said:
My mum is quite scared to try new technology.
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So's mine. (age 73) She just about knows how to turn off my dad's PC. Rarely carries & uses a Mobile phone. How to use their new 4K telly? Don’t go there :mad: :rolleyes:

Not as bad as my old nan though (god rest her soul) didn't know how to write a cheque & never used the microwave dad bought her.
 
Lets spin it another way. Young people freaking out for years that there was no start button on Windows 8.
 
I am good with technology at the age of 25 (but no guru). The Other halfs granddad who is 60+ can do every single DIY job you can think of including gas/electric/water, strip cars down clean them and put them together. I cant do hardly any of the things he can do.

I would say they are more important than being able to put photos on a external drive to never be looked at again :P

I think a lot of the problem is the Old age part. My granddad tries to ring people with the TV remote
 
See I think that a lot of it is what you grew up with, you learn quicker as a child and it becomes second nature, just look at reading and writing vs. teaching an adult to do the same thing.

I didn't grow up with computers until about 15/16 (im 28 now) and now I'm comfortable building and to a certain extent troubleshooting, smartphones however I struggle with as I've only had one the last couple of years.
 
I think that one key difference in the last few decades is that it's become much easier to use a computer without having any idea what's going on. I know plenty of people, including young people, who can use a simple touch UI on a handheld computer but have absolutely no understanding of anything else because they don't have to and have no interest in it, e.g. they have no idea where anything they save is stored and don't care. It's entirely about using apps and nothing else.

I'm the other way around. I taught myself basic programming in the early 1980s, starting building my own PCs in the late 80s, etc. The usual. I know almost nothing about "phones" (which has become a rather silly word for what is now a general purpose handheld computer that is rarely used as a phone and is badly suited to being used as a phone) because I don't want to pay to never be on my own and be constantly tracked.

I think it's quite interesting that the main use for the really quite spectacular advances in global communication networks and handheld computers is to send what any Victorian would recognise as a telegram.
 
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