The Rise of the Silver Surfers

One of the Switch guys from above Refresh was today talking about Christmas and how his 96 year old grandma who lives in Canada extended her wishes on the day via webcam. Hearing James talk about this made me wonder what kind of difference the Internet can make in the life of someone who would be considered to be of the 'older generation'. As you might imagine, I look at the Internet through the eyes of a mid-twenty year old man; it's only when I take a step back and look from a different perspective that I see the benefits for an elderly person are just as obvious.

Without a doubt, the main obstacle in the way of the majority of older people gaining access to the Internet is a working computer knowledge. Unfortunately getting on to the Internet requires the use of a PC, but in a generation that wasn't bought up around computers this can pose a problem. Fortunately there are a number of courses designed specifically for this user demographic - these are usually very cheap to attend and the advice is friendly and unintimidating.

Assuming that this one obstacle can be overcome, the primary use of the Internet for most elderly people will almost certainly be communications. I'm not speaking from personal experience but I imagine that it would be very easy for an elderly person to become fairly isolated; I've known of people in their seventies, eighties and nineties who don't see anybody for days, or even weeks, on end.

Being online lets our silver surfers create their own Skype accounts for free, enabling them to hold audio or video conversations with both their acquaintances and relations that may live far away. Like with James' grandparents, communication with family with both audio and video was possible with her whole family in Devon many, many miles away for as long as she liked without it costing her a penny; without the Internet this just wouldn't be achievable. I would say most people that buy a webcam in one of our shops could be considered elderly and I think it's great that a little £10 gadget affect someone's life so much.

Websites like Friends Reunited help older folk get re-acquainted with friends that they may have fallen out of touch with many years before and gives another way of communicating with the outside world. In a recent study 35% of silver surfers said that the Net had given them a bigger group of friends since they retired. Obviously, e-mail is a great tool for communicating and keeping contact this way is a great deal faster and generally simpler than penning a letter.

The Internet can also serve to starve off boredom and keep the mind active in the later years of life. Sites such as Wikipedia provide a whole wealth of information that is literally unending; coupled with billions of websites this window to the world is invaluable. A side point to this is that again, in the aforementioned survey 42% of older people said that as a result of the Internet they were more aware and tolerant to the way that the world is changing.

If you suffer from mobility issues then online shopping can relieve the burden of having to go in to town or out to a large supermarket to get the weekly shop. Those that rely on someone getting their shopping for them may also like the independence and freedom to choose exactly what they want and get it delivered the same day.

The words computer and OAP are not found in the same sentence particularly often but the possible improvements that the net can give in to the lives of our elders is well worth the effort of overcoming the technical challenges.

It's a pretty long way off but I anticipate that upon retirement I shall proudly call myself a 'silver surfer'.