The Internet Is Mightier Than The Sword OR The Pen July 25, 2008

The growing motivation among millions of young social networking junkies, including myself, to post pictures and details of all the fun we are having in life may eventually cause us more harm than good as we age and move further into our professional lives.

Reading the article entitled Facebook Never Forgets as posted on our class Del.icio.us feed summoned me to think more carefully about how freely I may decide to post pictures of myself partying, running around in short skirts with beer in my hand or even sitting seductively on the lap of a “special friend”. These are simple fun activities, which remain relatively harmless until the wrong eyes look at them, at the wrong time.

Sure, I have absolutely NO intention what so ever to ever run for President or any political office for that matter, but I do have other personal and professional aspirations planned for myself.  It doesn’t mean much right now, but having the wrong picture of me saved to the wrong persons hard drive could make for a pretty sticky situation in the future. At the very least, I may have to end up doing some explaining to someone I’d rather not have to do any explaining to about why I felt the need to take a picture bent over with my hand on my behind or my middle finger up (which, by the way, I honestly have not done in at least 10 years now).

The point the article makes is that the Internet has a viciously long memory…a lot longer than most humans. Therefore, it might be worth taking some extra consideration and precautions in everything you say/post onto social networking platforms such as Facebook, MySpace or even you own Blog.

My dream is to either one day attend or be a guest of The Oprah Show. I really look up to and respect Oprah. I am sure attending her show will not be hard for me to accomplish as long as I am willing to get on a year-long waiting list for tickets, fly to Chicago and stand on an insanely long line for hours. However, actually getting ON The Oprah Show as a guest is going to take a little more ingenuity on my part, but I have ideas on how I might go about making that happen (which I will keep to myself right now). However, how likely is Oprah going to be willing to interview me on her highly acclaimed talk show if her researchers forward her a link to some old blog I wrote about me baring my “hoo-ha’s” during an innocent Mardi Gras bachelorette weekend with my girlfriends?   How seriously could she (Oprah) or any one else, like potential investors, really take me after reading something like that?

The internets’ “free-for-all gossip culture”, though currently serving as a GREAT entertainment and networking feature for me NOW, could quite possibly come back and bite me in the “hoo-ha” later if I am not more careful, selective and discriminating.

Come to think of it…..maybe, I could just settle for being an audience member on The Oprah Show instead.  Yes, maybe that will do just fine.

The Internet & The Elderly (Omniclass Blog) July 24, 2008

This post is in response to our class del.icio.us link that was posted about the World’s Oldest Blogger who just recently died.

Reading this link struck a chord with me because I have a 75-year-old, grandmother who in the last year started displaying to me an avid interest in becoming more tech savvy. She started dropping subtle hints to me that she wanted to learn more about the internet. Since she is retired, of course, she spends a lot of time at home alone watching TV. Computers have always been a device that has eluded her life because she never needed one for work and never had one in the house except for when I lived with her.

My grandmother would often hear someone on T.V., like Oprah, mention going to a website to find more information about something. After hearing “Go to www.(something).com” so many times, I guess my grandmother finally realized that this thing called the internet is not just another passing fad, but a resource that is here to stay and perhaps she should learn more about it.

She began her journey into the digital abyss by signing up to take free computer classes offered at the local library across the street from her house. BOY! Did that open up her desire and curiosity about everything!

After noticing and being quite impressed with my grandmothers newfound energy for learning something new, I got a used computer from one of my neighbors who was selling her old Compaq desktop. My grandmother was so delighted to have an actual computer of her own in her home, it did not matter to her that it was slow, old and had little memory on it! The computer was just like her!  :0)

The computer only cost me $10 so it was not surprising, but rather a relief, that it actually lasted her 6 months until it finally died. While my grandmother was without a computer again, she commented to me that it felt as if she lost her best friend! That’s when it occurred to me that elderly people really do need to stay in touch with the technical/digital world because it makes their brains churn and keeps them vibrant.

Naturally, I had to get my grandmother another computer right away because I could tell she was disappointed that her learning momentum had come to a halt.

Seeing my grandmother blossom into a new phase of learning like this taught me that:

1) You are never to old to learn something new

2) Learning new things throughout your entire life extends your life and your quality of living

3) There are a lot of people in the world that are willing to part with a computer for little to no money at all

Since getting this second computer, my grandmother has also gotten a printer/copier/scanner, a digital camera, a new cell phone (w/camera and text messaging) and she is active on her computer everyday! Scanning old family photos is what she likes to do best as well as playing with graphics and e-mailing the few people she knows with an e-mail. I can tell having the computer makes her feel involved in the changes taking place in the world instead of feeling as if she is on the sidelines watching the world pass by as many other elderly people feel. It also keeps her company and makes her feel like she is not alone.

This experience with my grandmother and her sudden quest for computer knowledge made me think of starting a non-profit whose purpose would be to get computers for the elderly and teach them how to use it and how to use the internet.

I am still thinking about how I can go about establishing such a program. I think it would be highly successful and definitely rewarding for me to see elderly people minds get reawakened to the digital age!