Old people don’t use the internet?

Ignorance of the man.

I'm 71 and got into computers big time when doing my degree in the 1980s. My final thesis was the use of IT in the study of history.

After I retired, I took on voluntary work to teach 50+ on using their computers/laptops. Courses were free and there was a waiting list for those wanting the 6 week courses. Reasons for using their computers varied: communicating with families, shopping, research for their hobbies, entertainment. The list is endless. I really enjoyed it. Feedback from those attending was so rewarding too. They really appreciated someone their age teaching them. They had got fed up with youngsters rushing them through tuition.

A year ago, I managed the sale of step mother's house. Agent, we chose was put on a time limit to sell. I hope your client sarahcyn has something like this and can find a better agent when the fixed period is up. I asked for a weekly list of who they had contacted, who had seen the property and the feedback from all.

Sorry

OK I'm 75 and when I've finished here I will be taxing my car on line, transferring money to pay for an outing, emailing my friend (also 76) to tell her I've paid for the outing and filling in this year's online form for the electoral register. I'm also waiting for the book I ordered online from Amazon. How would we manage without computers?

I have a serious Rightmove addiction!

Me too
Although I just realised that I forgot to look today, I might have missed just the right place!!

My best female friend worked in computers at the university in the 1960s. They were big machines then.

I bought an Acorn Electron for my 11-year-old son in the early 1980s. He went on to do a degree in computer science, and taught me how to navigate the internet when it was first used generally. I remember saying that I just wanted to send emails and buy things! It has opened a whole world. What an amazing invention.

I totally agree with the ageist assumptions. However I get frustrated at work . I work in a job centre where nearly everything has to be done on line. It drives me nuts when younger customers in their 40s and 50s boast about how they have never used a computer and are also really resistant to learning even when offered free local courses.

My mother in law (who would have been 95 now) was very computer literate. She had to be for her job and she retired at 65. I wouldn’t have thought there would be many elderly folk about now who couldn’t use a computer/laptop/iPad. And these things are so much more user friendly than they used to be.

Another big fan of rightmove here.

One of our neighbours aged 74 is very anti the internet - what do you want that rubbish for etc. As soon as he wants to know something he phones me up to google it and print off details if necessary. Such a stick in the mud and behind the times when it suits!

I was an overnight guest with my Aunt recently. She somewhat overslept but quickly excused herself to me as she had to 'do' her Facebook. She was 98.

If someone is being patronising, I point out that I am a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, that usually reduces them to silence

I totally agree with all of you, but when setting up a WhatsApp group locally, out of 29 people, the 3 that didn't have a smart phone were all in their 60s (yes I was surprised too). None had an email address either.

Rightmove is the way to pass time when you have nothing else to do. One wet afternoon I looked up all the photos of houses I had lived in, my daughter said it was a form of stalking.

I am an avid fan of Rightmove and love looking at holidays! ha ha.

It was a glib remark but hi lights the fact that organisations need to provide access for those that are not able to use the internet,

My GP practice now no longer takes repeat prescriptions over the phone. you have to use their online system or go to the surgery..
This is causing a big problem for my neighbour who does not use the internet.

It is a huge disadvantage and it’s easy to say everyone should learn but there are serious technophobes out there.

Surely if anyone without the internet was looking for a property like yours they would've visited or phoned Estate Agents in the area. A good agent would be using all media including good old fashioned newsprint!
You pay enough in commission to cover any expense.

Before I retired, I was keeping student records, using database and spreadsheets. I prepared learning materials for my classes using word processing and desk-top publishing. I did all my house hunting on line 21 years ago and found the one I now live in. I had a dial-up modem until my 10-year-old GD ran up a huge phone bill during her summer holiday! I might add that my dear uncle, now long deceased, bought a computer in his 80s and taught himself to use all apps he needed. At the same time, he learnt Swedish and worked out how to use the keyboard to write it accurately. You can teach an old dog new tricks.

DH bought and assembled a ZX80 - in 1980. We bought our first home personal computer in early 1984, ahead of the launch of Amstrad and have updated them regularly ever since.

Like others, I am a RightMove addict, especially since they included data from the land Agency listing what price houses sold for. It is quite interesting going back to see what price out first home now sells for. (£340,000, we paid £5,750 in 1969) and other homes the family have owned, and what the neighbours home sold for, not to mention google maps and google earth to fly over and look at the houses of people who bought things I sold on ebay.

That is before I check the weather to decide whether to do my online tai Chi class inside or out. later I might checkout Gransne and Facebook, zoom my daughter, or buy the new lighting for my kitchen before researching a talk I am giving in October.

But is they say, we older people do not go online.

We got our first computer in 1989 when DS was 5. I'd been using a computer at work for several years before that.
I'm currently doing research on retirement properties in the hope that I can persuade DH that the time is right. I don't know where I would be without the Internet.

M0nica, whe my sister moved house. I had a look at it on Google earth. In fact I took a virtual walk along the road, as far as it would let me.

I am 91 and been using a computer for roughly 20 years. I put my WW2 website up in 2003 and written a few small books which has had all proceeds, after printing costs taken out, donated to charity, which would never have been done if I had not had my computer.
I have just spent a month in hospital after breaking a bone in my spine and having a chest infection and while in there I used my I-pad to Facetime my family. It seemed to amaze the doctors because they had never seen anyone my age doing this. It certainly stopped me going potty while in there although the staff were brilliant but being in a room on my own my I-pad kept me in touch with the outside world.

We had a BBC Micro. DH used a computer at work - it filled a room and used punch tape. I can't remember exactly when we bought the Beeb, but it hadn't long been on sale, so it couldn't have been much after 1981.

The Beeb was deliberately conceived and designed to be what these days is called "open source" and owners could write their own programs for it in Basic. There was no GUI graphic user interface, just a dark screen onto which instructions could be typed. Programs were saved onto a tape recorder.

In case anyone is confused, the Beeb didn't fill a room! It was a miracle of cutting-edge technology and every bit of it was accessible to the amateur.

C:\> will mean nothing to the younger generation

Programming in Basic was a lesson in logical thinking and demonstrated clearly what a computer could and couldn't do!

The breakthrough that brought computing to everyone was the Graphic User Interface - the screen image that shows pictures as well as typed words, and can be interacted with directly to make the Central Processing Unit perform tasks without typing in every tiny step it must follow.

But of course, the yoof of today won't believe that we wrinklies could possibly know anything that they don't - and were doing it long before they were bornt!