Welcome back! Now that the holidays are behind us (or in front of us depending upon your perspective), it’s time to decide whether to keep those technology-related gifts or to return them and get something useful (you KNOW I don’t mean that!).
What did you receive that enables you to connect with the digital world? My 86 year young mother-in-law received an iPad Mini. At first, she had no idea what to do with it. When she learned that she could “start” an app that allowed her to “watch” her daughter’s (my wife’s) commute, she was intrigued!
Georgi (my wife) drives a l-o-n-g daily commute. She and her mother are very close. They converse nearly every day. Now, using her iPad, her mother can actually “watch” as Georgi drives the 60 plus miles to work. I guess it makes her feel that she’s contributing to Georgi’s safety by keeping an eye on her during that dreadful commute.
Excuse me for rambling on. It’s NOT about the commute: it’s about my mother-in-law using a device – a computer, if you will – THAT is the exciting event! She’s been a technophobe for the past twenty years. She’s had no use for computers and has had no problem letting us no that. My 94 year young father-in-law however, is quite the opposite. He has a desktop and uses it almost daily. He’s owned an appliance business for 60 plus years and still works in it with his son. He looks up and orders parts, reads various news and generally browses.
Even my 88 year young father uses a desktop. While he was consulting, a practice he stopped dome years back, he made his own travel arrangements using his computer. Who says Senior Citizens don’t embrace technology!?
Somewhere at the beginning of this note I asked you a question: “what did you receive…?” When you have a moment, write and tell me what and what you do with it. I’d like to share you stories in the hope to provide others with some ideas about what they might do using technology. Its fun, it’s safe, and you really can’t break it (very easily anyway! 😉
R.