missb Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 My father- in- law does and he's 71. I work in the education sector and we provide computer courses for everyone and every ability. Twice a week we have a group of older people coming to use our I.T facilities. I know a lot of people, young and old are frightened of technology but it opens up a whole new world. It is especially useful if they are tracing their family tree. My father- in- law loves computing and I am responsible for his interest as I got him to join a computers for the terrified course a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Talker Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 My father, when he visists, and sees me and Mr PT using our PC, he always looks astounded, and says how he couldn't figure out the first thing to begin using computers. He's only 65, so it's not like he's decrepid! Someone mentioned the problems with her mother's reluctance to use a mobile phone... I can tell you about my dad, encountering a mobile phone. I bought my dad a mobile phone the other christmas. He's not been a well bloke, and I wanted him to have some means of contacting help, if he took poorly, or the car broke down... When I gave it to him, he looked, puzzled, at it, and said; "Oh, Bl**dy hell! What's tha bought me that for? Tha knows *I* have trouble lighting 't' bl**dy gas, me!" Well, we just fell about laughing at him older folk, and their techno-phobia! lol PT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 Originally posted by Plain Talker My father, when he visists, and sees me and Mr PT using our PC, he always looks astounded, and says how he couldn't figure out the first thing to begin using computers. He's only 65, so it's not like he's decrepid! Someone mentioned the problems with her mother's reluctance to use a mobile phone... I can tell you about my dad, encountering a mobile phone. I bought my dad a mobile phone the other christmas. He's not been a well bloke, and I wanted him to have some means of contacting help, if he took poorly, or the car broke down... When I gave it to him, he looked, puzzled, at it, and said; "Oh, Bl**dy hell! What's tha bought me that for? Tha knows *I* have trouble lighting 't' bl**dy gas, me!" Well, we just fell about laughing at him older folk, and their techno-phobia! lol PT My Dad uses the PC all the time, he knows how to use the MS Office applications and check his Hotmail, which is enough for him. Mum though is reluctant to even dust round the PC for fear of accidentally pressing something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest poppins Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 My husband and i are retired, my son kept telling us to get a pc but had no time to help us with one (of course), we practiced on an old one for months, mainly solitair, tried taking a basic class at first, had no idea what they were talking about, when out and bought a brand new top of the line pc, played around with it for 6 months, love it, now i'm ready to take a class again as i'll know at least what there talking about now. so my advice for us old people, use one for yourself, play with it, make mistakes,get use to the mouse best way is solitair, then you'll be confident to take a basic course, this way at least you'll be able to know enough to ask the teacher questions on it. you realy have to know the basics to take a basic course, there are NO BASIC BASIC courses out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matsalleh Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 I am 21, 3 times over and came from Amstrad, Amiga (any Elite for PC ?) and now I don`t know what I use. It has had that many bits taken out and stuck on Heinz 57 I think.Have completed one course at Square Mile and on my second. It is good fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 Originally posted by Plain Talker . He's only 65, so it's not like he's decrepid! Hey !....thanks for that PT. I'm 65 and still building the odd PC as well as providing support for people half my age. Last Sunday's job was showing my granddaughter how to use CDex and get the tracks onto the player we bought for her birthday. I think though that old people completely new to it would be better with an Apple machine than a Windows based PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted October 23, 2004 Author Share Posted October 23, 2004 Originally posted by Greybeard Hey !....thanks for that PT. I'm 65 and still building the odd PC as well as providing support for people half my age. Last Sunday's job was showing my granddaughter how to use CDex and get the tracks onto the player we bought for her birthday. I think though that old people completely new to it would be better with an Apple machine than a Windows based PC. The older generations aren’t incapable of using a computer. It is a case of awareness of what they can do for you and that it isn't as daunting as it makes out to be. IMHO, it will probably take at most 2 more generations for a more even/widespread exposure of computing across all ages simply because computers were not part of the education in school pre-80s. If you start a poll on here on how old everyone is, I suspect, you will find it is heavily weighted in the range of 0-40 than 40+ for the reason I have described. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teebee Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 my dad has probably forgotten more about computers than most people will ever know....... you cant get through to my parents because people are always phoning him up asking him to sort out their computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauline Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 hello,im a nannan to 10 and a bit g/children,5 of then live in germany,i was terrified of the thing at first,now i wouldnt be without it,and i have a mobile that takes pics too,you can learn an old dog new tricks:clap: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kezza Posted October 25, 2004 Share Posted October 25, 2004 My Grandad surfs the net and he is 90 this year. Also he has a mobile and sends texts messages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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