My mother is 72 and technology is not her cup of tea. Since I moved with her only granddaughter to another country 5 years ago, she reluctantly has learned how to send e-mails, not without complaining quite often how ugly the computer, or “thing” as she calls it, was in her living room. Today, things are quite different. When I asked her a few months ago what she wanted for her birthday, thinking she was going to ask for a new croc pot, she requested a new digital camera to use with the “thing”.
Every time we speak using Skype, she uses the camera. She then, sends the pictures to her wall on Facebook, so her new friends can see the granddaughter.
My mother is very good with knitting looms, she makes wonderful scarves. She takes pictures of them and list them on Flickr, and she has even learned to name the pictures with the right keywords. She uses her blog and etsy.com to sell her pieces. Since she got the camera, she started putting together some video tips on crafts and she posts them on Gather. She says the “thing” helped her find a new life and brought a less painful meaning to the word “distance”.