Modern-day grandparents get connected
Seniors find family communication is only a mouse click away
By Gracey Hitchcock
My mother, a woman who never learned to use a VCR, has bought a computer. Suddenly, at 70-plus-years-old, she is sending e-mail, listening to music and having a ball.
She is not alone. Grandparents have taken to the Net. According to a CyberTRENDS Winter 2003 report, the rate of PC ownership in Canada among adults aged 55 to 64 has increased almost 10 per cent in the last year. Twenty-eight per cent, or over a million adults aged 65 or older, have a PC in their home.
In 1997, Ryerson University in Toronto opened a computer lab for seniors. The L.I.F.E. Institute, which is affiliated with Ryerson’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, offers courses to adults 50 years of age and older.
“Seniors were just starting to get interested in technology then and didn’t want to be left behind,” says Sandra Kerr, director of seniors’ education programs in continuing education at Ryerson.
Communicating with family and friends and researching hobbies and interests online seem to be the bait that has seniors hooked.
Sharing memories and recording family history
Simone Maingot lives in Ottawa and chats online two or three times a week with her younger brother in England. She uses instant messaging.
“Chatting is so much fun,” she says. “Before, I could never believe that e-mail could replace a letter that you write and you can hold in your hand, but this way of communicating is wonderful because you receive an answer so quickly.”
Click here to find out more about instant messaging using Windows Live Messenger.
When her brother mentioned that he did not know his father well enough, Maingot tried to help. She is writing a family history on her computer. “I started writing about my father and now I have written seven chapters. It is really a labour of love. I am also going to write about my mother,” she says.
Hobbies, friends and games
Kay Lavers of Lethbridge, Alta., decided to buy a computer after learning to use one at her local senior centre. Lavers uses her computer to keep in touch with family, exchange jokes with her friends and play solitaire.
Last Christmas, she used her computer to make placemats for her grandchildren. She downloaded and printed pictures from a software program and then combined them with personal photos to make the laminated mats. They were a big hit.
Keeping up with the grandkids
Computers are nothing new to former journalist Alice Farnsworth.
Farnsworth describes her computer as a “lifesaver” and says it helped ease her move to a small town in British Columbia. “Without my computer, the adjustment of moving would have been so much harder,” she says. “E-mail lets you stay in touch with friends and family so you don’t feel so homesick. It’s also my instant encyclopedia — I can look up anything that interests me.”
Farnsworth also finds e-mail ideal for keeping up with her two granddaughters in Toronto. “I think e-mail is great for communicating with kids. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to kids on the phone — they don’t know what to say or aren’t in the mood. This way they e-mail me what they are doing [and] send me pictures and photos.
“I can even help my francophone granddaughter with her English homework,” she adds. “And it’s a lot less expensive than long distance.”
Stay in touch with family and friends, share day-to day moments, “watch” children grow, or record family history. Computers are an easy, quick and inexpensive way to communicate and bridge the generation gap.
