| Elderly peeps/Internet 18:00 - Jul 22 with 2375 views | footers |
Has anyone got any experience and/or advice about older family members starting out with modern tech?
My grandad now has a smart phone, sometimes writes messages on WhatsApp and things like that, but still very basic. He's a lot more isolated now and I think it could be great thing for him to get more involved but don't quite know the best way to go about it.
Some of it confuses and frightens him a bit. I just want to make it as interesting, easy and accessible as possible for him.
Any thoughts, experiences? |  |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:04 - Jul 22 with 2352 views | J2BLUE |
Explain that nothing too bad can go wrong. In my experience they're scared of doing something that is going to mess everything up. Sometimes you just have to keep trying things until you find a way to do it. Set him up with the basics. Google so he can find stuff, a basic email account and perhaps BBC etc? |  |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:06 - Jul 22 with 2353 views | WD19 |
I was on the wrong end of an attempted scam yesterday - the consequence of a service provider compromising my password. It was nasty and ingenious and my naturally sceptical nature went a long way to keeping me safe. However, it did make me realise that the internet is going to be a very confusing and scary place in old age.
Buy him a good book instead. [Post edited 22 Jul 2018 18:07]
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:07 - Jul 22 with 2337 views | SpruceMoose |
What's his phone number? I work for Microsoft and his pc is infected with a virus. |  |
| Pronouns: He/Him/His.
"Imagine being a heterosexual white male in Britain at this moment. How bad is that. Everything you say is racist, everything you say is homophobic. The Woke community have really f****d this country." | | Poll: | Selectamod |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:08 - Jul 22 with 2328 views | WD19 |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:07 - Jul 22 by SpruceMoose |
What's his phone number? I work for Microsoft and his pc is infected with a virus. |
0898 696969 | | | |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:13 - Jul 22 with 2311 views | SpruceMoose |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:04 - Jul 22 by J2BLUE |
Explain that nothing too bad can go wrong. In my experience they're scared of doing something that is going to mess everything up. Sometimes you just have to keep trying things until you find a way to do it. Set him up with the basics. Google so he can find stuff, a basic email account and perhaps BBC etc? |
A shortcut to Pornhub on the desktop might be helpful too. | |
| Pronouns: He/Him/His.
"Imagine being a heterosexual white male in Britain at this moment. How bad is that. Everything you say is racist, everything you say is homophobic. The Woke community have really f****d this country." | | Poll: | Selectamod |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:13 - Jul 22 with 2313 views | WeWereZombies |
My godmother is 98 now, still uses email, downloads old family photographs when we send them to her, tells me if I use too large a font in my messages...
It's all down to what they want, and mostly that is company and to keep in touch, so it's important to answer their emails promptly and give them time to think before expecting a reply. Also, make sure they don't get suckered in by gambling sites. Those nursing home fees aren't cheap. |  |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:17 - Jul 22 with 2297 views | footers |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:04 - Jul 22 by J2BLUE |
Explain that nothing too bad can go wrong. In my experience they're scared of doing something that is going to mess everything up. Sometimes you just have to keep trying things until you find a way to do it. Set him up with the basics. Google so he can find stuff, a basic email account and perhaps BBC etc? |
Explaining Google is an ongoing mission! Cheers for the advice, trying to narrow it down to as few apps as possible.
You make a really good point about messing up. But I think there was a generation gap as my mum kept entering competitions to win blenders/mixers and wondering why her PC was full of viruses. | |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:20 - Jul 22 with 2282 views | footers |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:07 - Jul 22 by SpruceMoose |
What's his phone number? I work for Microsoft and his pc is infected with a virus. |
0121 DO ONE
You should see the size of the lad. Still knocking lads' heads together in his local! | |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:24 - Jul 22 with 2267 views | rosseden |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:20 - Jul 22 by footers |
0121 DO ONE
You should see the size of the lad. Still knocking lads' heads together in his local! |
once my mum understood that 'Okay' means 'yes' and a few other simple rules, she worked it out fairly easily. I think the biggest issue is that the jargon doesnt mean anything, which makes it harder..... mitigate that and away you go.... |  |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 19:56 - Jul 22 with 2156 views | Burwell_Blue |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 18:06 - Jul 22 by WD19 |
I was on the wrong end of an attempted scam yesterday - the consequence of a service provider compromising my password. It was nasty and ingenious and my naturally sceptical nature went a long way to keeping me safe. However, it did make me realise that the internet is going to be a very confusing and scary place in old age.
Buy him a good book instead. [Post edited 22 Jul 2018 18:07]
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You got that also?
I’m proper teched up but couldn’t work out who had been compromised to give my password, do you have idea? |  | | |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 20:05 - Jul 22 with 2136 views | Pinewoodblue |
My uncle, who was on a housing association committee, was in his 90's when he had to learn to use emails and word when they announced they were going paperless. Coped admirably with technology. |  |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 20:11 - Jul 22 with 2126 views | WD19 |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 19:56 - Jul 22 by Burwell_Blue |
You got that also?
I’m proper teched up but couldn’t work out who had been compromised to give my password, do you have idea? |
Best guess is that it is a legacy Facebook hack that must have happened a while back.
They claimed to have installed a keystroke scanner that captured my password (which would have been whilst logging on to TWTD), but that didn’t stack up for various reasons. | | | |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 20:26 - Jul 22 with 2104 views | BloomBlue |
Get him an iPad as it's harder to hack and he's bound to click yes to every pop-up that tells him things like click on this to improve the performance.
Older people often find pc's more complex than a tablet. |  | | |
| on 20:42 - Jul 22 with 2062 views | _ |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 22:53 - Jul 22 with 1984 views | mos |
Realistically they’ll never be as competent as younger people, I’m always showing my father how a URL link works and how to reset passwords he inevitably forgot. But you can certainly help them. Depending on how much they know will be what determines what you help them with, otherwise just hook them up with how to use the internet, more specifically, how to use a search engine, then they can access a whole world of information at a press of a few buttons.
The texting apps (WhatsApp, iMessage) will be useful for quick communication to, however don’t try and introduce too many things at once, and don’t introduce things that they don’t really need to know because they’ll get it all muddled up. For instance my father will never need to use his brightness settings etc, and it only made it more complicated for him.
If anything they’ll pick a lot of stuff up from just using it alone. |  |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 23:07 - Jul 22 with 1967 views | mos |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 19:56 - Jul 22 by Burwell_Blue |
You got that also?
I’m proper teched up but couldn’t work out who had been compromised to give my password, do you have idea? |
Often hackers can leak/hack databases that contain thousands of users’ passwords, and chances are you’ve used the same password for all your other online accounts - most people do. I remember one of TalkTalk’s databases were hacked into leaking 150’000 people’s details including names, emails and passwords. The hackers often just sell these databases or trial and error their way through them seeing if users have used the same email and passwords on other online accounts (PayPal, online banking, TWTD etc).
Also keylogging, where people have downloaded a dodgy program, and every time you startup your PC each key you press is logged into a TXT file which someone can access. Something like this possibly:
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 00:22 - Jul 23 with 1907 views | Ryorry |
| Elderly peeps/Internet on 20:26 - Jul 22 by BloomBlue |
Get him an iPad as it's harder to hack and he's bound to click yes to every pop-up that tells him things like click on this to improve the performance.
Older people often find pc's more complex than a tablet. |
I've never found laptops or desktops a problem (started using around 1998? I think, when late 40s), and there are many introductory courses for 60+ people at public libraries etc for those - but as for smartphones ... 
I didn't find iPhones a problem, but cannot get to grips with my new Android (Samsung) at all - only have one for a) camera and b) making phone-calls when out - but cannot even manage b) as the green phone icon never seems to respond to either pressing or swiping :( |  |
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| Elderly peeps/Internet on 01:24 - Jul 23 with 1882 views | jeera |
Don't let them anywhere near it.
They'll be giving bank details to long lost relatives and all that nonsense.
Buy them jigsaw puzzles and Wordsearch books, that kind of thing instead. |  |
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