Too Old? Never!

Upgrading my mother's computer had become a necessity. Her computer was well over five years old and so slow to open programs. She would be sitting at the computer for ages just waiting for the machine to chug through its processes. This was not good. The older we get the more we must move around. Our bodies dictate it. Otherwise joints become very stiff. And as my mother is fond of saying, "What you don't use, you loose!"

Why upgrade? Why bother struggling with a computer when you're over 80 years old? Heck, why bother when you are 70, when you are 60! Well, my mother and I did discuss this issue when, in her mid eighties, she first decided to learn how to use a computer and bought her first one. She had wanted to listen to her music, get email from her grandchildren overseas and have a library of information and news, the Internet, at her fingertips. She was also curious about digital technology, wanting to learn about it first hand.

Life, be in it!
What learn new things? At 80? Old dogs never learn new tricks! Well, label yourself an old dog and sit in the sun all day and you won't have the capacity to do anything else! Instead, at 90 or 80 or any age for that matter, take an interest in new people, learn new games, play cards with a group of friends, with grandchildren, do crosswords, sudoko, any puzzles, think, plan, read and do! And you could learn to use that digital tool called a "computer".

Housebound? Fly away via the Internet.
Now, in her nineties, her need to be able to use a computer seems more compelling. She recently handed in her car licence and is now more housebound. Getting out to the galleries and libraries in Canberra is not as easy. She tires more quickly now so a whole day at a gallery is out of the question and having lived through the Great Depression she feels that taking a taxi to the gallery just to view something for an hour is an extravagance. With a computer she can click on to the National Library for instance, and view its exhibitions; all from the comfort of her own chair.

Videos emailed from friends and family.
With more grandchildren moving further a field and getting married in places too distant for her to travel to, digital photographic material whether images or video can be sent to her via email. Imagine the thrill of watching a family video taken on a mobile phone and immediately sent to you via the Internet to be viewed on the large screen of your computer. (Watching movies on the tiny screen of a mobile phone requires the baby fresh eyesight forty plus usually loose!) Actually my mother was unable to receive video on her old modem connected machine. And this was another reason for her upgrade. Broadband, even the poor broadband Telstra supplies everyone in Yass, is much faster to download email with images and video attached as well as Web sites. Broadband puts an end to the Big Wait! And this is more and more important the older one gets because older people must remain active if they are to move around at all!

Music, your choice, 24 hours a day!
Probably the most compelling reason for my mother to decide to upgrade her machine and her computer skills was the fact that the CD player on the old computer was temperamental and she missed listening to music. Furthermore the new machine held the promise of being able to store all her music and she could just turn on the machine and listen to music all day without having to change a CD.

It also helped that the price of laptops has dropped. Instead of outlaying close to $5,000 as she did the first time, she could pick one up for less than half that price. And if she had been happy with a desktop computer she could have got a new one even cheaper. (And we're lucky in Yass that we have good technical support providers.)

It also helped that family and friends can help her learn to use her new computer. And as one of those involved, I love the opportunities it provides for shared companionship.