Why do you use Gransnet?

rosie, I’ll have a go at explaining. I’m using the desktop site. Not sure if the mobile site is the same.

Click or tap on Forums in the menu bar (red on my screen) at the top of the page. Click or tap on the Forum Topic you think is most appropriate to your thread. You’ll see a yellow box just above the first thread listed in that topic ‘start a new discussion’. Click or tap on that, enter your heading and away you go. Hope that makes sense.

I have been a member since day 1 and log in most days.
Over the years I have made many online friends but never had the opportunity to attend any meet ups.
As merlot stated the demographic has changed over the years but that happens as new members join and members leave.
I find GN gives excellent support when problems occur and helpful backup to people who are lonely or having difficulty by way of stearing them to the right path where they can seek help or support.
My favourite threads are the more light hearted such as fashion/beauty I never get involved with politics or anything heavy.

I used to read Mumsnet and thought it a great idea,so was pleased to find GN, I spent a lot of time alone and hate it,my husband is a farmer and works very long hours,I do not drive and live miles from anywhere,I am a chatterbox and miss people to talk to ,sometimes during harvest I can go three or more days without speaking to anyone else,so I see what the girls are speaking about today,I have posted with some problems,and it has helped to get other views,and it has been really helpful.
Have grown up children and grandchildren ,I am 52 and life has ground to a halt to me,so get very lonely.

Just the forums but I have done a couple of meet ups. I often go weeks without looking when life is very busy so I suppose I use it as a distraction when I am putting off doing something useful!

It does make me feel good on the odd occasions when I have the answer to someone's problem.

Is it for information?
Not usually, but I often look for recipes on the internet. Could also look here, but if, as someone has said, you can't print them, then there's not much point.

Chat?
Of course!

Interest in other people's lives?
Not originally, but it can be fascinating.

Giving or receiving advice?
I have given up on asking for advice as I have had some very bad experiences. But I do often contribute when people are asking for advice, although not on relationships or political subjects. I try and read right through the thread first, and add something new.

Connecting to other people?
Very much so, as, as an expat, I enjoy hearing about things going on in the UK.

Do you log in because you're bored/need a distraction and want to while away some time? Or do you come looking for something specific?

Out of habit actually.

Do you use it in place of reading a book/watching TV/having a snack/looking at Facebook?
I don't watch TV and am not on facebook. I come to Gransnet when I haven't got the concentration for a book, or am waiting for dinner to cook.

Do you visit at certain times of the day?
In the morning, in the lunch break at work and sometimes in the evening if there's a thread I've been following.

If there was something we could that would encourage you to use it more or differently, what is that thing?

To be able to navigate the threads more easily. It is usually very difficult to find a question or comment when the reply comes on the next page.

I get the e-mail but always delete it immediately because it usually quotes threads I have already read, and I can't enter the competitions as I live abroad. (May as well unsubscribe, really)

I just love that I can share thoughts and experiences with other people.
That is why I joined Gransnet.

I come on to GN every day at some point and have done since day 1. I don't suppose I am alone in feeling invisible and sometimes I really do wonder why I come on here. Both my DH and I are disabled so don't get out very much and my DH is in pàin for much of the time so retreats into himself. Our family are all hundreds of miles away. Many of our close friends are gone. I suppose the main reason that I persist is to feel a sense of connection with other people because life is generally pretty solitary.

(Introspection like this is not helpful and causes depression! On the whole we are both very positive and concentrate on our blessings and fortunately both love our home and garden.)

Once or twice I have been in regular correspondence with another Gran but it has fizzled out after a very short time so perhaps my life is too narrow to be of much interest. Sadly I would find it physically pretty difficult to take part in meet ups.

I rarely venture on to threads like politics which I find difficult to cope with as I find them confrontrational and that is more down to my own health issues which means that sometimes even the most innocuous threads exhaust me. I shudder to even contemplate my life without my DH but at least I would have virtual contact on GN. The GNers were very kind when my DH was so badly injured at the beginning of 2017 and that wonderful support is a real strength of GN.
I read much of all that is on the GN site particularly in the 'wee small hours' when sleep just won't come. I wouldn't change anything really but would like to be able to connect better with a particular post and find it exhausting trying to wade through long threads trying to find replies when it has actually gone off at a tangent. I don't feel I have put that particularly well but hopefully you will understand my meaning!

Synonymous maybe you would gain some comfort and support from joining soop's kitchen? Everybody is kind and helpful. Perhaps if you read the posts for a few days and get a feel of what is happening, maybe then join in? I do not think that you will be disappointed.

I only come on once in a while - generally if I see something interesting on Twitter - and only if I think I can help or I have a very strong opinion. I have never looked at anything beyond the forums. I would like the threads I am on to last longer. If I have commented I like to look back and see how the discussion went but it has disappeared.

It is a fascinating insight into other people's lives.

Gransnet has really made me think more and look at other perspectives and has taught me that we can all disagree sometimes in an agreeable way. And much more. Its also provided me with support advice interesting debate and laughs and chat. I am very limited socially because of M.E. and fibromyalgia. Gransnet has helped with that.

Thank you Charleygirl perhaps I will have another peep.

I love to read the opinions of other members. So interesting especially as most of us are strangers. Not knowing religion and ethic background is refreshing. Debates are mostly held on words alone.

I feel connected and the active forums help me to feel connected. I work in a mostly young workplace and sometimes feel the conversation isn't interesting me or relevant.so Gransnet helps me connect love the tips and comps and the way people's remarks/ comments are relevant to me.

To try and understand why my MIL does the things that she does!

Oh, forum means a lot for me! I think that this it is an amazing place to meet new people, solve your problems and share your experience. I love helping others so such community is created for me. Every day when I wake up and drink coffee I love to read what people write. Even if it makes sense or no. Even if I can help or no - though I can learn a lot.

I think GN performs a brilliant function for support, information and for virtual company for many who are lonely (not just those living alone). I use it as a distraction from stress. Personally I am wary about social media in some respects because sites are basically a business, and sell advertising and postings are not confidential to members but can be read by others, including the general media ie Daily Mail. Sometimes I am tempted to post quite personal stuff but don't wish to read about it in the press later. I would also hate a "Like" button as I feel it encourages people to "play to the audience".

I'm a fan of group chats and l want to know others opinions on a certain thing

i am going to be brave and tell it as it is and expect to be shouted down by many who have no understanding or experience of my situation. I am a step gran and have absolutely no idea of what i am supposed to do as a gran. I have few if any feelings for the little ones and find it extremely hard to interact with them. I am tolerated as a second wife.

I joined gransnet to see what I am supposed to do, or at least what others do. Some aspects are heartening - how people cope with difficulties and personal grief. Some make my family experiences seem normal when grans discuss family problems and errant relatives. The rest who discuss their joy and rewards of being a gran leave me dispirited, envious and feeling inadequate as I know I will never experience such things. Over the years things have got worse.

I now dip into the forums when I am not trekking or travelling or whatever, and realise I find peace in nature and the natural world rather than the bosom of family life.

I do not expect sympathy or judgement and It has taken great courage for me to write this.

Izabella, your step-grandchildren will probably find your stories about your travels far more interesting than falsely cosy attempts to bond by reading sacharine books to them.

There isn't a certified list of what you should or shouldn't do, for any grandparents, let alone step ones, except that it is a bad move to set up in oppostion to their established relationships. Be yourself, be interesting, don't boss them around, don't criticise their parents but be available as an alternative adult for them to turn to should you be needed.

I don't much these days – it's changed and interests me less than it used to.

I’m a newbie, hesitated to join as I’d heard there were sometimes quite acerbic comments, though I’ve not seen any thus far. I find it interesting to read others’ opinions or experiences and to compare them to my own. I find myself often thinking how fortunate I am when reading of unhappy experiences, family situations or ill-health.

I’ve enjoyed reading book suggestions, had help and support on the LCHF thread and had my eyes opened to other views and lives.

Welcome Jessity. It would appear that those with acid tongues have upped and left and it is much nicer now although every now and again you may find the odd comment which is way out of place.

Synonymous, I hope you wont mind my mentioning it but did you see that TV programme which I think aired for the first time last night about the medical uses of placebo? I ask because I am so sorry for your husband's pain.

In this programme the experiment and the clinical implications impressed me. All points were covered including the ethic of lying to the patient and the latter did not actually happen!