BENEFITS OF INTERNET TO RETIRED SENIOR CITIZENS
Mental benefits. Knowledge of the Internet will help the senior citizens improve their mental alertness. Aside from the vast information from the Internet, it is also a great source for video games. Why video games? According to the Psychology and Aging magazine, playing video games helps improve the cognitive functions of seniors which normally decline during old age. Strategy video games helps in keeping their brains razors sharp, and improve their eye-hand coordination. Gaming Industry is now looking into possibility of developing more video games tailored for seniors, and that they will be their highest next target market in the future. Establish a home-based online business. Seniors who worked specially from corporate office for so many years will still have the opportunity to earn after retirement. Examples are selling products, stock photography, and offer services online. Another freelance home based job is to be an content online writer. It enables them to share their expertise, knowledge and wisdom acquired through the years. Shopping is just one click away. Purchasing online is the best thing that happened for seniors. It means that they can shop in the comfort of their home since mobility is their main concern. Explore the world through the Internet. Not all seniors have the chance to travel due to financial and health reasons. Now the Internet gives the seniors at least the opportunity to explore the world more by browsing and watching videos online . The Internet is a tool to continue learning by browsing the Internet to get more information especially about health and fitness. Watching tutorial videos related to their interests such as painting, playing the piano, gardening, flower arrangements, cooking, travel, and among others.YouTube is the most popular video site for various categories. |
Emotional benefits.
Uplift the spirit through online communication with family and friends. It enhanced self-esteem, a more cheerful outlook, gain independence, and feel much happier that they still experience to interact more to people. The Internet creates new life for them and that makes them feel young again. Instant Messengers : Skype and Yahoo Messenger are the two most popular free service chat providers that seniors can avail. Video conferencing is the most satisfying experience that enable them to see live and talk with their loved ones who are away from home. Facebook is the most popular social networking site that brings family and friends together. Share photos, chat online, play games, search old friends and more. What an exciting experience to reconnect with old friends to whom they have lost throughout the years. Help build grandparents relationship with their grandchildren. Many seniors or grandparents feel they are being left behind because they cannot cope up with the world. With Internet knowledge, seniors can still catch up with their grandchildren bridging the gap between them. Having a common activity together in the Internet with the grandparentsand the grandchildren helps build a better relationship. SOURCE: http://expertscolumn.com /content/ benefits-internet-retired- senior-citizens |
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT COMPUTERS
AND THE INTERNET
Although seniors have misconceptions about using a computer, these misunderstandings are often an important cause of fears and objections. Below we have listed a number of frequent misconceptions:
§ You need to be technical to be able to use a computer
Not true. Senior citizens need to attend a good basic course or use a good self-instruction book. A lot of seniors who regularly send e-mails or surf the Internet have no technical knowledge whatsoever. By self-instruction or by attending a course they have learned the basics in how to use a computer.
§ you need to know how to type well
Not true. Expressing a sentence is often more time-consuming than typing the sentence. It is very easy to correct a text you have written in an e-mail message, or a text editing program, such as Word. Besides, not many people will pay attention to typos when they are reading an e-mail message.
§ Fear of Pressing the wrong key
Not true. Often, there are lots of security mechanisms in place, which will prevent you from carrying through any major changes without checking this first. For instance, if you accidentally delete a file, the computer will ask for confirmation. If you did not want to delete the file after all, you can click Cancel.
§ You can get hooked on using the computer
Not true. For most people, the computer and the Internet are pleasant additions to their life.
§ You will always attract viruses and spyware to your computer when you open a website or an e-mail message
Not true. Viruses and spyware are programs that can damage your computer, but using a virus scanner and a firewall program can considerably reduce the risk of viruses and spyware. As a computer user, you are responsible for the security of your computer. For example, you can often set a security level in your Internet browser, with regard to the Internet’s access to your computer. Is the sender of an e-mail message unknown and do you mistrust the message? Then do not open the message and delete it at once. You can find additional information in the book Protect, Clean Up and Speed Up Your Computer for SENIORS.
SOURCE:http://www.seniorcitizenjournal.com/lifestyle-health-and-fitness-articles/seniors-experience-anxiety-using-the-internet-part-2/
AND THE INTERNET
Although seniors have misconceptions about using a computer, these misunderstandings are often an important cause of fears and objections. Below we have listed a number of frequent misconceptions:
§ You need to be technical to be able to use a computer
Not true. Senior citizens need to attend a good basic course or use a good self-instruction book. A lot of seniors who regularly send e-mails or surf the Internet have no technical knowledge whatsoever. By self-instruction or by attending a course they have learned the basics in how to use a computer.
§ you need to know how to type well
Not true. Expressing a sentence is often more time-consuming than typing the sentence. It is very easy to correct a text you have written in an e-mail message, or a text editing program, such as Word. Besides, not many people will pay attention to typos when they are reading an e-mail message.
§ Fear of Pressing the wrong key
Not true. Often, there are lots of security mechanisms in place, which will prevent you from carrying through any major changes without checking this first. For instance, if you accidentally delete a file, the computer will ask for confirmation. If you did not want to delete the file after all, you can click Cancel.
§ You can get hooked on using the computer
Not true. For most people, the computer and the Internet are pleasant additions to their life.
§ You will always attract viruses and spyware to your computer when you open a website or an e-mail message
Not true. Viruses and spyware are programs that can damage your computer, but using a virus scanner and a firewall program can considerably reduce the risk of viruses and spyware. As a computer user, you are responsible for the security of your computer. For example, you can often set a security level in your Internet browser, with regard to the Internet’s access to your computer. Is the sender of an e-mail message unknown and do you mistrust the message? Then do not open the message and delete it at once. You can find additional information in the book Protect, Clean Up and Speed Up Your Computer for SENIORS.
SOURCE:http://www.seniorcitizenjournal.com/lifestyle-health-and-fitness-articles/seniors-experience-anxiety-using-the-internet-part-2/
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA? Social media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics: · Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience. · Openness: most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content – password-protected content is frowned on. · Conversation: whereas traditional media is about “broadcast” (content transmitted or distributed to an audience) social media is better seen as a two-way conversation. · Community: social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show. · Connectedness: Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people. Back To The Future If you think that there’s something oddly familiar about descriptions of social media, it may be that you recall some of the discussions in the 1990s about what the web would become. And many of its emerging manifestations are close to the idealistic imaginings from that time. A good way to think about social media is that all of this is actually just about being human beings. Sharing ideas, cooperating and collaborating to create art, thinking and commerce, vigorous debate and discourse, finding people who might be good friends, allies and lovers – it’s what our species has built several civilisations on. That’s why it is spreading so quickly, not because it’s great shiny, whizzy new technology, but because it lets us be ourselves – only more so. And it is in the “more so” that the power of this revolution lies. People can find information, inspiration, like-minded people, communities and collaborators faster than ever before. New ideas, services, business models and technologies emerge and evolve at dizzying speed in social media. |
Basic forms of social media At this time, there are basically seven kinds of social media. Note, though, that innovation and change are rife. - Social networks : these sites allow people to build personal web pages and then connect with friends to share content and communication. The biggest social networks are MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. - Blogs : perhaps the best known form of social media, blogs are online journals, with entries appearing with the most recent first. - Wikis : these websites allow people to add content to or edit the information on them, acting as a communal document or database. The best-known wiki is Wikipedia4, the online encyclopaedia which has over 2 million English language articles. - Podcasts : audio and video files that are available by subscription, through services like Apple iTunes. - Forums : areas for online discussion, often around specific topics and interests. Forums came about before the term “social media” and are a powerful and popular element of online communities. - Content communities : communities which organise and share particular kinds of content. The most popular content communities tend to form around photos (Flickr), bookmarked links (del.icio.us) and videos (YouTube). - Microblogging : social networking combined with bite-sized blogging, where small amounts of content(‘updates’) are distributed online and through the mobile phone network. Twitter is the clear leader in this field. SOURCE : www.icrossing.co.uk/.../ What_is_Social_Media_ iCrossing_ebook.pdf |