With Christmas right around the corner, my family has decided to chip in and buy my grandmother a new computer. This will be her very first computer EVER and we are all very excited. So, what sparked the whole computer idea? You might be surprised at the answer: Facebook.
I was at my grandmother s home recently and had brought along my laptop to do some work as well as show her some pictures of family when I logged into my Facebook account really quickly to respond to someone about something. She asked what it was all about, and after I explained to her in terms that she could understand, she was sold. Currently, my grandmother (who is pushing 80) stays extremely active by crocheting, knitting, playing tons of Scrabble and emailing her family and friends using a service called WebTv. WebTv is a type of Internet service that uses a television and a cable connection in order to connect to the Internet. It is very similar to having dial up.
While WebTv has worked well for her over the past five or six years, the connection to the Internet it slow, and she is extremely limited in what she can do over the Internet. In the past, other family members have tried to encourage her to get a “real” Internet service as well as an actual computer, but she has been resistant to change until I came along. Her growing fascination with the Internet isn t something that happened overnight. I ve been noticing little bits of interest here and there whenever I ve gone to visit her in the not too distant past only I haven t really said anything until Christmas time rolled around.
You see, the Internet is great for a lot of reasons. It opens up a world of possibility, ideas, innovations and things to keep you interested. And for someone like my grandmother, who is older, there have been studies conducted which claim that those people who use a computer on a regular basis actually have less instances of developing degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer s, etc. It s about keeping your mind engaged. It s about thinking. Even something as simple as sending an email to someone requires both hand and eye coordination to use a keyboard and a mouse. You have to think about what you want to say and type it out. These are things that we take for granted when we are younger.
I am excited as ever for my grandmother to be on Facebook, and although I have already given her a lot of pointers and tips, I am hoping that she will take the reins and venture out on her own to figure the rest of it out. It is the “figuring it out” part that will further engage her mind and keep her on her toes as she discovers things on her own and figures out how to use certain features to keep in touch with other family members and friends. Not only this, but it will help to build her confidence and reinforce the fact that you are never too old to learn something new.
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