Old people don’t use the internet?

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 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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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 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 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!!

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?

Sorry

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.

I'd say its his marketing that's at fault.

I regularly look at rightmove, but won't delve further into ads with only one picture of the property, or shoddy looking photographs and no room sizes, floor plans help a lot too. These are the basics that people need to decide if they want to be bothered with a viewing.

I'd check what he's actually advertising and if its not up to scratch, change the agent, but tell him why he's just lost his commission.

I find this so funny! ‘Old people’ like me wrote the Internet, it’s a lot older than that whippersnapper of an estate agent thinks and the code didn’t write itself

Some estate agents are unbelievable poor. Last time I purchased I really needed the room sizes and they hadn't even bothered to go and measure up and post the room plan! It was like trying to get blood out of a stone to get information from them.

Change your estate agent.

Gabrielle56

I'm 65 and for the last 20 years of working I worked exclusively on computers .spreadsheets PowerPoint all the other cr4p that was there to help me do my very stressful fulfilling job! I'm very tech savvy and only fall down on that hedgehog thingy and the one where you run people over before blowing their heads off....... I do like maleficent though! ? Joking apart I'm sick to death of the younger generations thinking that we all drop brain dead at 60! It's the new 40 or haven't they heard that one yet? At least we understand that getting vaccinated saves our lives!

??? although I can’t do spreadsheets. I do word, family tree and embroidery patterns

I'm 65 and for the last 20 years of working I worked exclusively on computers .spreadsheets PowerPoint all the other cr4p that was there to help me do my very stressful fulfilling job! I'm very tech savvy and only fall down on that hedgehog thingy and the one where you run people over before blowing their heads off....... I do like maleficent though! ? Joking apart I'm sick to death of the younger generations thinking that we all drop brain dead at 60! It's the new 40 or haven't they heard that one yet? At least we understand that getting vaccinated saves our lives!

I co-run a small club with a current membership of 150 people ranging in ages from 40s to 80s. We would love to be able to reduce our paper, printing and postage costs and run all our communications digitally but a good third of our membership do not use the internet and/or have mobile phones. It is changing as older members leave and young members join but it’s a slow process.

Of course, it was a sweeping statement for the estate agent to have made but they still need to market by a variety methods to get the widest coverage.

I once did some proofreading for a student who had researched computer literacy - but in a small and restricted community - finding that older people did not use computers and the internet.

I had to point out that all the people aged 70+ (and some are 90+) in my community are competent with computers and use the internet. It's really a case of whether you have a need for it.

We, too, were using computers, probably before the estate agent was born, in the early 1980s, partly because we were teaching, so were familiar with the BBC B and bought a comaptible Acorn Electron for home.

I ve had a computer since 1990 and have bought sold and banked on it every since
My 86 year old friend is as savvy as me buy / sells emails photos etc ( she doesn’t bank) and my 96 year old cousin is on fb and does photo editing in a club and learning Spanish on line during the pandemic I should add just before lockdown at 94 she had her eyebrows tattooed on
We re far from dinosaurs nowadays
I d have ghad a go at that estate agent

The irony is that this estate agent said this as part of his spiel to persuade my clients (I’m not an estate agent btw!) to sack their previous agent and move to him. They have moved to him but more through desperation than for any other reason!

Could the agent have meant that your home may appeal to a certain demographic?

I think anyone with children born in the 70s will at least have a passing knowledge of computers. We bought our first so that the children weren't left behind their peers.

That is so ageist, I would have told him so to.