What happens when a group of young, energetic and passionate teenagers (who are convinced of their own mastery of all things web) are asked by a group of seniors: “What is Facebook?”
To the group of educated, literate seniors, it seems as if the students are speaking a foreign language! Nowhere is the generation gap more obvious than during this first Cyber-Seniors recruitment at one of the retirement homes.
This is highly entertaining. Enjoy!
Over the past few months we have watched as many of our seniors become more and more independent, some might say addicted to the internet. Shura is one of the seniors who is a real natural on camera. We should have known it would happen, because she has taken things to a whole new level by crossing over to Youtube with her own little cooking demo!
Shura lives in a retirement residence and always eats in the main dining room for breakfast and dinner, but often eats her lunch on her own. Without a full kitchen, it’s time to improvise! There’s no better way to demonstrate the power of Youtube than by turning your improvisation into your first video blog! Stay tuned to see how she progresses onto her own channel!
As a member of the production team, my favourite part of the filmmaking process has been listening to the stories as our seniors share pieces from their past. I’ve enjoyed hearing about their history and their personal interaction with technology over the years. A majority of them had very little personal experience with computers before they joined the Cyber-Seniors program, and others did use some type of “computer” before.
Some of the men used various machines in the military going back as far as World War II. They had advanced skills and knowledge for that time period. After leaving the military and joining the regular workforce, and then eventually on to retirement, they witnessed a huge leap in technological advancements, but never actively participated in them. A number of women talked about their clerical positions, but they also stopped using computers after retirement.
As someone who has grown up with computers for most of my own life, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to have experience with complex technology in one time period, and then go decades without keeping up with the pace as technology advanced. I can only try to live through their stories, and it’s been a delight to listen and watch them take on the task of catching up to the younger generation that is now teaching them.
They come from an era where commercial television was the biggest advancement for the longest time, and watching television is a very passive activity. You can debate whether people really need to keep up with technology in their golden years. Some might say “I’ve lived a great life without it, so why should I start now?” but we’ve seen a few in our film who once considered themselves luddites, become addicted to something as simple as Scrabble with their Facebook friends. They are connected and they don’t want to switch it off.
Physical mobility might be decreasing, but if we can get more of our elders online, the “new” technology offers so much more to keep minds healthy and active. Hopefully the days of sitting passively glued to the television are over.
At my age, I cannot imagine what it would be like to disengage now and then try to catch up again in 4 or 5 decades. As we move forward, i think it’s very important that we make sure ALL generations have access to the Internet and new technologies, but that’s a whole other subject where people can debate if the Internet should considered be an “essential service.”
Cheers.
-P
Hello Cyber-Seniors followers. We thought it was about time to release another sneak peek video so you can all see what our student-teachers and seniors have been up to! In this video, we asked the student-teachers to tell us about the most common mistakes seniors make when learning to use computers and the internet.
It’s been a pleasure to observe these two groups who have generations between them, as they come together and reverse the roles of student and teacher. The seniors are learning new skills to reconnect with family and simplify other time-consuming tasks, while the students develop patience as they figure out new and creative ways to pass on their knowledge to their elder learners.
These beginning lessons always provide some cute moments, and we’re sure many of you can relate to this. Check out the clip, and stay tuned for more!
The Cyber-Seniors documentary is 6 months into filming and we have already seen many of our seniors go from not knowing how to turn on a computer, to being independent in a daily online routine. Many of them cite keeping in touch with family as the main reason for wanting to learn how to use the internet, and have found email, skype and facebook to be the most beneficial for their needs. After seeing our group of seniors embrace the internet, I began to wonder about the other seniors out there and what their relationship is to the web. While browsing some statistics on Statistics Canada’s website, I found some interesting results.
When looking at online activity compared by age group, the largest gaps occur between the youngest and oldest cohorts, 15-24 and 75+. This was fascinating to me because these are exactly the two groups we are bringing together in this film! 94% of 15-24 year olds were online as of 2009, where as only 7% of people over the age of 75 were. What struck me as most interesting is how these groups use the internet. 90% of seniors use the web for sending and receiving email, not too different than the other age groups (of 15-24 year olds, 97% use email) and 54% of seniors use the internet for reading and watching the news. There are no other significant stats for the seniors because they tend not to do much more on the internet. What I found interesting is that 15-24 year olds contribute more than any other age group to web content. 33% contribute to online web content compared to 22% of 25-45 year olds, 11% of 45-65 year olds and only 7% of seniors (65+). Contributing to web content means blogging, posting videos and photos, sharing, commenting on articles, participating in forum discussions, etc. These are the types of activities that make things go viral, therefore giving this age group a huge upper hand in a lot of what we see online.
In real life, I find these 2 age groups have many similarities: they don’t (usually) work full time, they don’t support a family, they aren’t raising kids. In short, their responsibilities are relatively few. Why shouldn’t they be spending the same amount of time online, doing the same types of activities? Almost every teenager has a youtube account where they create, post and share videos. No matter who they are or what background they have, this age group feels they have the right to create and express themselves in a public forum. And why not? It helps builds a strong online community, it keeps their minds active, and it’s fun.
Since we have begun the online marketing for this film, I like to think we have stumbled upon a small online subculture that revolves around seniors on the internet. A lot of it is younger people trying to get seniors online, or poking fun at how cute it is when they screw up (for example, the viral video “Did you hear the click?”). I believe that if more seniors get online and get in on the joke, it would be even funnier. I really believe this is an important subject for us to explore in our film. We need to create a movement of seniors who are active online participants. Email is an old technology most of us have been using for almost 15 years, it’s not quite relevant anymore. Social media is where we should try and push the seniors in order to close the technological gap between young and old.
Hello Cyber-Seniors fans! It’s been a while since our last post, but we’re still filming and our seniors are still learning how use unfamiliar technology to explore the internet. Some of them have come a long way, and the program has been getting some exposure in the local media.
We just wanted to share with you a recent video report by Audra Brown for Toronto CityNews. She stopped by during one of the Cyber-Seniors club meetings at one of the retirement homes where the students demonstrated Skype. Some of our more experienced seniors took part in the demonstration, and showed off some of their newly acquired skills by chatting with their own family members via Skype! Click the above links to watch our seniors and students in action.
Prior to this story, Lisa Rainford from InsideToronto also published her article “Seniors get tech savvy with the help of some new friends”.
We asked the seniors, how do you feel about technology and the generation gap? Are you ready to take on the challenge of learning a new skill? Their honesty and determination is very sweet. They’ve come so far from this initial interview!
Hi everyone. We have decided to share with you a little sneak peek into our documentary film Cyber-Seniors! As you may know, we have been filming for almost 5 months now. We’ve found an amazing group of seniors who are discovering the internet and loving it!
These clips were taken from some of the very first lessons our seniors had, as they discovered the online world for the first time. Barbara and Joan’s first youtube experiences are particularly moving. We’re sure you’ve seen some funny older people on Youtube before, and here are some cute moments from our elder-learners.
Pass these videos on to someone and make their day, and tune in for more sneak peek videos coming soon!
More than any other genre, the documentary film truly comes to life through the editing. But as I sit here with my 4 terabyte hard drive and approximately 70 hours of footage, I can tell it won’t be easy.
One technique I’ve discovered is to keep changing my workflow and the way I look at the material. Some days I can sit at my computer for 10 hours looking through raw footage. Then suddenly without warning, I feel I can’t stand another minute of it. At that point I need to change my technique, so instead of looking through dailies I switch to laying out notes on cue cards and shuffling them around on my office floor. This technique feels much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
I’m longing for the day when it all clicks and the story comes together. For now, I’ll just keep digging and searching for gold.
After much time spent scouting, we are finally piecing together our Cyber-Seniors team!
We’ve had dozens of great student volunteers come out and interview with us. Beginning next week, we will be pairing them up with their senior partners and getting started on some computer lessons.
The first couple of classes are always very entertaining. Some seniors are enthusiastic, some are apprehensive. They hit roadblocks. Many of them don’t understand the concept of a mouse and most forget their email username and password almost immediately after setting it up. But that’s ok! Learning a new skill is never easy. Our enthusiastic student volunteers will be there to coach them along.
Soon our seniors will be independently exploring the world wide web! Finding new online hobbies, making new friends, maybe even connecting with old flames. *sigh* They grow up so fast…
P.s. check out this video of some of our student volunteers talking about who their favourite person is over the age of 70 and why.