The elderly need to become more tech savvy in this dangerous contemporary world – Part 1

In the modern world, the most worrisome is the elderly citizens, not because they are incompetent to do a more physical thing, some of them might even be more able physically then the younger generation, but oblivious nature of these folks scares the young
and tech savvy people.

During the holidays, elderly people get to interact with their sons and daughters and grand children more as compared to work days. Stories are exchanged and experiences are shared but the most daunting of all is their amateur approach toward the security
of their computers at home.

These days, many of the stories revolve around the computer. Older people are getting aquainted with Facebook and other social networks, are doing their banking online, are buying their products online. In a nutshell, they’re using the Internet like the
rest of us.

But they also tell startling stories that are unfathomable to the younger generation. A virus is common in their tales that’s been on their computer for months, but they still go to their bank online. They will share their account of a nice man who offered
to sell their timeshare, but after giving him thousands of dollars upfront, surprise, the sale never went through. They would innocently open all the nice pictures and animations in their email, even from people they’ve never met.

When the tech savvy ask questions, or make suggestions, there is shrug to wade the opprobrium. “Have you checked with your bank to see if you still have any money?” A chuckle. “Have you considered updating your browser from IE6?” A shrug. “Since you have
a virus, maybe you should do a clean install.” A wry smile. “Don’t you think you should stop opening all those attachments?” A dismissive wave of the hand. “Maybe you should move off XP to Windows 7.” A shake of the head — too expensive.

Many of our seniors have mastered basic computer technology. After all they have been using computers since the early 80 but the technology has evolved a great deal since then.

They certainly understand meat space threats. They know not to talk back to the cop. They know to look both ways when crossing the road. Many of them have known real adversity and have seen real horrors in their lives. Many of them lived through atrocities.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Jan 7 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry