Seniors and computers - did you know we're delayed?

Morning coffee and newspaper
–digital delay?

Digital delay for the elderly

Digital delay for the elderly - National Post 

Ottawa Citizen - Mon., Feb. 5, 2013 Like many young Canadians, Denis O'Keefe is rarely more than an arm's length away from an Internet-connected. 

The difference is that O’Keefe is 96 years old.

Josie and I play some iMovies!

Basically, the article bemoans the Statcan data that says we oldsters are out of touch with the times, don't download music, TV shows and movies. Why would we?! A lot of it is crap!

Yes, so they say. I sit down to read my morning paper, yes, I know, but it is tradition. But I can fondly recall sitting with my paper and my coffee as I changed hats from single mom to teacher and working mom.

More evidence of ageism in the young person's world. Anyone who knows me, though, knows I am pretty active on the Internet. I don't have an iPhone, I'm not needed that much, nor do I need to contact friends or family that quickly!

Computer presentation to staff 2004

Like the rest of the folks in their 50s and 60s, and even their 70s and 80s, we learned to use computers and integrate them into our jobs. My late mother learned how to use a computer when she was 50 years old, in order to process their weekly Rotary Club newsletter. Yet, I have to read again how backward we oldsters are. They lovingly cite a man, Denis O'Keefe, who is his 90s and manages the struggle to use a computer! As if he is the only one!

When I went on-line to read the article, and cite it, I found that it has disappeared from the Citizen. Good thing.
A further search found that Misty Harris, self-proclaimed pop-culture queen (Twitter.com/popcultini) who wrote the article, claims that:

"The bad news is that seniors’ online cultural consumption – think digital downloads of music, TV and movies – is dismally lagging. And as more and more services go digital, the risk of alienation is significant."

It's young people who need to be taught manners!

How frightening, 'dismally lagging',
we are 'risking alienation' if we don't download music! "Digital media expert Alfred Hermida says people simply prefer to use the media they grew up with." Seriously? My mom grew up with radio. She used an electric typewriter and a computer when she retired at age 66 in 1991. Alfred, of uBC, knows not whereof he speaks!

What this is proof of, is that another journalist didn't do who homework.

What these staisticians do not realize is that we don't want to download music, never mind do we need to. We like popping our CDs into the car when we drive. Most movies are NOT geared to our demographic. Who want to watch sissy young people in love (teenagers + 20-somethings), scantily clad women, or blood and guts warriors (18 - 20-somethings)?

Wii user in long-term care

We like drama and a plot, as well as character development. While we're the ones with the larger disposable income, we choose not to spend it on this less than artful medium. We are choosy with our music. We support artists by buying their CDs.

We cannot stand being in a theatre, either, with people talking, flashing their iPhones, and behaving as if they are in their living rooms. Culture, indeed!

Consumption of culture by older Canadians on the Internet

by Mary K. Allen (STATCAN)

[Release from The Daily] [Full article in PDF]

A new report by the agency notes that in 2000, less than 10 per cent of seniors had been online in the month prior to being surveyed, whereas by 2010, fully 60 per cent of Canadians 65 to 74, and 29 per cent of those 75 and older, had done so.