My grandparents recently sold off their beloved house they lived in for the last almost 40 years... and have moved into a nice "seniors apartment", the kind of place where you've got nurses there, meals and basically everything you could need are provided, meals in a communal dining room, a community library and activity spaces, etc...
Their old house that they moved out of was not really a luxurious place, it was very small, but it was home... a tiny little cape cod style home with a flower garden, a kitchen, and lots of little nooks for storing old junk, mothballs, and memories...
While an old age home might seem alot more convenient... no more shovelling the driveway, tending a garden, etc. they've gotten too old to drive a car now, i get the feeling that they are trapped there, bored, and probably feeling powerless and totally dependent... Since moving, my grandpa seems slower now, and doesn't do anything anymore, just sits there complaining about his health, and doesnt seem to look forward to anything (since even his hockey and toronto maple leafs were taken away for a quite a while)...
Basically, their kids and grandkids (myself included) are all scattered accross the continent, so I want to buy them a computer, and to hook it up to the internet so they can send receive email to their grandkids, surf the web reading about any health concerns, maybe even shop for books and things online, and I'm thinking of even making an online family website thats like a photo album... While my grandparents are pretty old, they're pretty eager to get with the times and they can sometimes be pretty sharp (on and off)...
One issue is that I want to set up a computer for them that is very easy to use... Basically, it's not easy to teach old people to use a mouse, let alone fiddle with lots of cables and things... So I was thinking about a wireless router that they don't really need to worry about (I'll just set it up in the corner someplace out of the way)... I'm more used to PCs, but I was considering maybe getting a large screen laptop or some kind of Mac with few cables, less parts and buttons to confuse them...
Kindof wierd to be posting this on an architecture forum, but then again archinects are pretty tech savy and thoughtful about this kind of stuff... Anybody ever tried to "wire" an elderly person before? Can anybody recommend a computer easy enough to teach a computer illiterate person?
Alternatively, within our digital age where our urban / social structure is increasingly car oriented, declining public life in our cities, less community, and increasingly self-centered households, the internet is often thought to be a new kind of public medium... But old people who have a tough time keeping up with the technology are often left behind... What design innovations could make life better for our elderly? Are we the worst generation in human history when it comes to treatment of our elderly? Shipping them off to old age homes seems like locking them away in a senior citizen detention center, or hospital ward... In most other cultures, especially the less capitalist driven and often less economically prosperous ccountries in Asia, Europe, etc. and throughout past history, people are supposed to take care of their elderly, often times, houses were designed to accommodate the extended generational family... But is this still possible within our modern day capitalist, "nuclear family" focused society?
great idea trying to get your grandparents wired. i just recently set my parents up with my old iBook and it is fun to finally be able to trade email with my mother & father. i definitely recommend using macs, but i will offer this warning, it's not quite as easy for "old dogs" to pick up the new tricks of the computer age as some of us think. i hadn't realized how intuitive computer interfaces have become for me over the last twenty years and there's been some very simple things that i take for granted that i have realized as i teach my parents (who happen to live in another town so i only see them about once a month these days).
you'll probably need more than a weekend with them to get them going. hopefully they are living with others who can help or maybe their new home even offers some classes for this kind of thing. a couple times my mother has gotten completely frustrated with the computer while trying to email me and then she'll call me up wanting to know what she is doing wrong. of course, that is difficult to diagnose over the telephone line and once she is talking to me, well, then she might as well just tell me what she was trying to send and the whole thing can seem superfluous.
anyhow, good luck with your grandparents...just remember to be exercise a lot of patience if the struggle with it.
Then if they have high-speed internet you can set them and all the grandkids up with iChat so you can have video phone conversations - my parents love it.
I think this is an excellent idea, by the way. Good thinking.
excellent idea and the comments above seem helpful already.
one thing that occurred to me about a wireless router, however, is that they're not foolproof. they go down occasionally and you have to restart them in the right order, etc.
since your grans are new at this, they may not mind being tied down to one location. can you not just plug them in?
i find that broadband through cable service is pretty straightforward and doesn't need to be messed with very often. and they'll just lose patience if you give 'em dial-up.
Thanks for the replies. The iMac seems like a good idea.
Liberty, does the iMac come with a built-in webcam? iChat definitely sounds like a great idea... would I need to buy a microphone as well or is that already built in?
Sorry bRink I can't answer - my husband is the Mac in our family, I just use it - I can tell you I recall it costing about $150 all told for the camera and software? Anyone else have a better answer than I?
Aug 15, 05 1:43 pm ·
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recommend a computer for my grandma
How do you get grandma and grandpa "wired"...?
My grandparents recently sold off their beloved house they lived in for the last almost 40 years... and have moved into a nice "seniors apartment", the kind of place where you've got nurses there, meals and basically everything you could need are provided, meals in a communal dining room, a community library and activity spaces, etc...
Their old house that they moved out of was not really a luxurious place, it was very small, but it was home... a tiny little cape cod style home with a flower garden, a kitchen, and lots of little nooks for storing old junk, mothballs, and memories...
While an old age home might seem alot more convenient... no more shovelling the driveway, tending a garden, etc. they've gotten too old to drive a car now, i get the feeling that they are trapped there, bored, and probably feeling powerless and totally dependent... Since moving, my grandpa seems slower now, and doesn't do anything anymore, just sits there complaining about his health, and doesnt seem to look forward to anything (since even his hockey and toronto maple leafs were taken away for a quite a while)...
Basically, their kids and grandkids (myself included) are all scattered accross the continent, so I want to buy them a computer, and to hook it up to the internet so they can send receive email to their grandkids, surf the web reading about any health concerns, maybe even shop for books and things online, and I'm thinking of even making an online family website thats like a photo album... While my grandparents are pretty old, they're pretty eager to get with the times and they can sometimes be pretty sharp (on and off)...
One issue is that I want to set up a computer for them that is very easy to use... Basically, it's not easy to teach old people to use a mouse, let alone fiddle with lots of cables and things... So I was thinking about a wireless router that they don't really need to worry about (I'll just set it up in the corner someplace out of the way)... I'm more used to PCs, but I was considering maybe getting a large screen laptop or some kind of Mac with few cables, less parts and buttons to confuse them...
Kindof wierd to be posting this on an architecture forum, but then again archinects are pretty tech savy and thoughtful about this kind of stuff... Anybody ever tried to "wire" an elderly person before? Can anybody recommend a computer easy enough to teach a computer illiterate person?
Alternatively, within our digital age where our urban / social structure is increasingly car oriented, declining public life in our cities, less community, and increasingly self-centered households, the internet is often thought to be a new kind of public medium... But old people who have a tough time keeping up with the technology are often left behind... What design innovations could make life better for our elderly? Are we the worst generation in human history when it comes to treatment of our elderly? Shipping them off to old age homes seems like locking them away in a senior citizen detention center, or hospital ward... In most other cultures, especially the less capitalist driven and often less economically prosperous ccountries in Asia, Europe, etc. and throughout past history, people are supposed to take care of their elderly, often times, houses were designed to accommodate the extended generational family... But is this still possible within our modern day capitalist, "nuclear family" focused society?
The computer would of course depend on your grandma's choice of creamy clam chowder.
iMac -- easy to use and set-up, compact design, stable os,
brink,
great idea trying to get your grandparents wired. i just recently set my parents up with my old iBook and it is fun to finally be able to trade email with my mother & father. i definitely recommend using macs, but i will offer this warning, it's not quite as easy for "old dogs" to pick up the new tricks of the computer age as some of us think. i hadn't realized how intuitive computer interfaces have become for me over the last twenty years and there's been some very simple things that i take for granted that i have realized as i teach my parents (who happen to live in another town so i only see them about once a month these days).
you'll probably need more than a weekend with them to get them going. hopefully they are living with others who can help or maybe their new home even offers some classes for this kind of thing. a couple times my mother has gotten completely frustrated with the computer while trying to email me and then she'll call me up wanting to know what she is doing wrong. of course, that is difficult to diagnose over the telephone line and once she is talking to me, well, then she might as well just tell me what she was trying to send and the whole thing can seem superfluous.
anyhow, good luck with your grandparents...just remember to be exercise a lot of patience if the struggle with it.
I second the iMac.
Then if they have high-speed internet you can set them and all the grandkids up with iChat so you can have video phone conversations - my parents love it.
I think this is an excellent idea, by the way. Good thinking.
excellent idea and the comments above seem helpful already.
one thing that occurred to me about a wireless router, however, is that they're not foolproof. they go down occasionally and you have to restart them in the right order, etc.
since your grans are new at this, they may not mind being tied down to one location. can you not just plug them in?
i find that broadband through cable service is pretty straightforward and doesn't need to be messed with very often. and they'll just lose patience if you give 'em dial-up.
Thanks for the replies. The iMac seems like a good idea.
Liberty, does the iMac come with a built-in webcam? iChat definitely sounds like a great idea... would I need to buy a microphone as well or is that already built in?
Good point, not per.. You're probably right, better to go with a standard cable broadband connection.
Mac mini?
Sorry bRink I can't answer - my husband is the Mac in our family, I just use it - I can tell you I recall it costing about $150 all told for the camera and software? Anyone else have a better answer than I?
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