By Peg Cochran
Marketing Communications Manager, Holland Home
In May 2017, a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed that approximately 67 percent of seniors over age 65 use the internet and that number continues to grow.
“We have residents that are very involved in emailing their family and friends or even using Skype to connect with family members who are unable to visit,” said Nancy Venema, Life Enrichment Coordinator at Holland Home’s Fulton Manor. “We have a 97-year-old resident with severe vision and hearing impairments who has taken our computer classes, so she could learn how to email her family who live outside of Michigan.”
What are the tools available today and how should seniors use them?
Email is a wonderful way to stay in close contact with family and friends. It’s easy to set up a free email account at gmail.com, yahoo.com or various other sites. You can email messages, as well as photographs, documents and videos. And it’s virtually instantaneous, so there’s no waiting for the mailman to come.
While Facebook use is declining among young people, 45 percent of seniors in the 65 and older age group are using the social networking service. Facebook is another great way to stay connected with family and friends. The newsfeed, which appears on every user’s homepage, highlights information including personal profiles, upcoming events, and birthdays of the user’s friends. It’s easy to share pictures, and to provide updates to several people at once. Facebook has a variety of privacy settings allowing you to choose how public you want your information to be. Registering is free and requires a valid email address. By accepting or not accepting friend requests, you can control who sees what you are sharing.
Twitter is another online social networking site where you can send and receive “tweets” or updates limited to 140 characters. Users may subscribe to other users’ tweets – this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers. Unlike with Facebook, you cannot control who “follows” you on Twitter.
Messages can be categorized by using the # symbol, known as a hashtag or keyword. It is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. For instance, “Check my Facebook page for a great #recipe for #apple #pie.” Anyone interested in recipes, apples or pies can search for those hashtags and follow the conversation.
Registering for Twitter is also free.
Skype
Communicating with someone via telephone and being able to see each other used to be the stuff of futuristic cartoons, but it is now a reality with Skype. The service allows users to communicate by voice using a microphone and by video by using a webcam, the camera that feeds an image to a computer. While Skype is not a form of social media, it is a wonderful way to stay in touch with family. Imagine being able to see, as well as talk, to your grandchildren or other distant family members who may be hundreds of miles away.
Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board where you can collect photos and links to things you want to save like recipes, DIY projects or travel destinations. By downloading the Pinterest “Pin It” button, you can click on a picture on the internet and save it to your bulletin board. When you click on the picture again, it automatically links back to the original site. You can have multiple bulletin boards, and pins can be collected according to themes.
“Technology is now a way of life,” said Michael Loughman, Director of Sales for Holland Home. “We have made computer classes available on all our campuses, and have volunteers who are willing to work one-on-one with our residents.”
Even if you decide not to try any of these social media tools, you will be able to surprise your children and grandchildren when you understand what they are talking about when they say they’ve been tweeting or Skyping or pinning or friending on Facebook!
