Close The Gap

Contributed by Elaine Landau

It was a Hallmark® moment. A kindly grandfather presented his grandchild with a fluffy red stuffed bear. The child kissed her granddaddy and then gleefully exclaimed that the furry little guy looked just like an icon from her favorite computer game in pre-kindergarten. The grandfather was so delighted. After the child fell asleep in his arms, the old gent whispered to his daughter, “What the hell is an icon?”

These days kids are computer savvy before they can write. A mouse is part of a computer. Not Mickey or Mighty. A keyboard is for typing, not playing. The generation gap will grow wider between parents and their children, between grandparents and their grandkids, if the older generations continue to remain uneducated in the ways of the computer.

Ready? Get set. Learn!
This is not the time to talk about the incompatibility of old dogs and new tricks. It is time to explore basic computer education. Seniors have the time to log on and take advantage of basic online computer training. Online tutorials are usually free or very inexpensive. By learning online, the student can learn at his/her own pace. Don’t frustrate your efforts to try to be an Ace immediately. Work at it a couple of times a week, perhaps 30 minutes at a time. There’s no pressure to keep up with other students and no place to drive to. Seniors can learn in the comfort of their own homes. They can also explore basic Internet training. Imagine how many topics grandparents and their grandkids can share if they both know how to Google.

Enjoy the learning process. Don’t try to absorb everything at once. Don’t be afraid to repeat steps over and over again. These new lessons will be reinforced in your memory with every exercise.

Practice makes perfect.
Once you feel comfortable with a new learned skill, such as putting photos into a text document, put that new skill to work. Create a poster for your spouse. Write a story for the grandkids and include big colorful graphics. Put together a memory book for a loved one’s birthday or anniversary. It will be such a keepsake and you can be proud of your newfound expertise.

Experiment with your computer. Push buttons to see what happens. The more you noodle with it, the more comfortable you will become. Fear is the main reason older citizens do not use the computer. They’ve heard words like “crash” and phrases such as “erasing the hard drive.” Those words do not inspire a lot of confidence.

Be daring and push the very powerful and sometimes foreboding Delete button. Guess what will happen. Well, your world will still be intact and you won’t be missing any limbs. You might have edited some words, but you can always come up with better words. Go ahead. Copy. Delete. Cut. Paste. Type. Erase. Compose. Dispose. Always remember to save. You are in charge and it feels great, doesn’t it?

As soon as you are feeling very comfortable, you might explore all the functions you can do online. Bank online. Pay bills online. If you are a senior on a fixed income, you can save a bundle on postage stamps.

Speaking of living on a fixed income.
Long-distance calls to the grandkids can get pretty hefty. If you and your children agree that it is okay, perhaps you can initiate e-mails between your households. E-mails are fun. You can be as longwinded as you please and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg in long distance charges. You’ll discover that many kids prefer to talk online than on the phone. They are able to choose when they want to talk, not when their parents say to pick up the phone. Your relationship might very well grow stronger with better communication.

And you will get to know someone a little better. You. You may just surprise yourself, as you become more computer savvy. You’ll probably discover that you had interests that you never knew existed before you discovered the computer and the Internet.

And here you thought you were the Bee’s Knees because you had an answering machine.

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About the Author:
Elaine Landau is a freelance writer, publicist, web site editor, and television writer with more than 15 years of experience in marketing, advertising, and publicity.