A punch card is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by parallel rows of holes. Paul Cook used the archaic medium for data input to crunch numbers on the earliest computers in the 1970s. Some people, he says, still fear that using a computer is as complicated and burdensome as it was 40 years ago.
“What I’m trying to do is to teach them the basics so they are not afraid to touch the machine,” Cook said. “Many of them have been told for so long that it’s so hard to do.”
Cook teaches seniors how to use computers at Garden Court Retirement Center on Friday afternoons. He provides step by step, written instruction that give seniors the confidence to use programs like Gmail, Word and Facebook. When people are repeatedly told they aren’t capable of doing certain things, sometimes it sticks, Cook said.
“I teach them, ‘No you’re capable of more,’” he said. “These are extremely intelligent people; they just never had the opportunity to expand and I’m just giving them a little doorway.”
Once that door is opened, their whole attitude changes, Cook said. It gives the residents a new sense of purpose.
“To be able to see these people kind of light up when they learn something knew, it’s great. I love watching it,” he said. “It’s another way of communicating with people around them. It gives them another level of life to be lived.”
The trick is to break every process into easily digestible chunks, Cook said. Once they write down the steps and repeat it a couple of times, it clicks.
“It’s overcoming the basic obstacles or fear,” Cook said. “One lady was afraid to hold the mouse, but once I showed her how it worked, she had taken off, now you can’t hold her down.”
Cook, himself a 68-year-old Garden Court resident, first used computers for accounting and drafting, right around the time of AutoCAD’s origin. Now he uses the 25th version of AutoCAD for some design work, checks in with Facebook to keep up with his family and friends, and uses Microsoft Publisher for the book he’s writing. Not to mention, Cook and 12.5 million gamers play the most popular video game in the world — World of Warcraft.
“When you retire from the business world you get bored, but using technology and its resources gives me the feeling that I’m doing something valuable, something that’s of use to something else,” Cook said. “That’s what we’re basically all after.”
With the feeling of importance, confidence follows, he said.
“I love to do this because it does help reactivate the mind,” Cook said. “It builds confidence.”
Although younger people are much more active than their elders on social networking sites, a new study shows shows seniors are making up ground.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that people age 74 and older make up the fastest growing demographic represented on social networking sites. Sixteen percent of Internet users in that age group visit them, compared to 4 percent in 2008.
Casa Dorinda, Friendship Manor, Maravilla, Valle Verde and Villa Santa Barbara all offer technology classes for residents.
“Instead of being something they are just too old to learn about, it opens up a window for them,” said Jill Sandrich, Maravilla activities director. “They can participate, compete, know what’s going on around them and just understand the vernacular that’s around these days.”
Guthrie, a 91-year-old resident at Maravilla, maintains contact with family and friends from all over the world with daily e-mail conversations, Sandrich said. He stays up to date with his smart phone and writes a political blog called Guthrie’s Blog on topics ranging from the Israel-Palestine conflict to deficit spending.
“It seemed like he had never slowed down,” Sandrich said. “He was just the kind of person who had kept up with things over the years. He seems younger because he’s still really connected to things in society.”
His mornings begin with a check of his e-mail and browsing stocks before heading to exercise class. And after Sandrich sees Guthrie at class, he often goes upstairs and composes music on his piano, she said.
“You’ve got a certain group of friends who will fall away as you get older, and unless you can get new friends who are younger and just start reversing your aging process you get into a routine,” Sandrich said. “Instead of letting your focus get smaller, just keep expanding.”
Guthrie doesn’t have time to get old, Sandrich said. He has a constant interest in what’s going on in the world and a thirst for knowledge and continuing his education, she said.
“When I first got introduced here, that’s who my predecessor wanted me to know — he is like the pulse of Maravilla,” Sandrich said. “He knows everybody, he’s amiable, he’s very fun.”
More retirement homes and other senior-related services are catering to the elders’ curious minds.
Sandrich was explaining to a Maravilla resident how anyone can type something into Google and learn about any subject.
“I thought I was done learning,” the resident responded. “Apparently I’m not done learning yet.”
Many Maravilla residents Skype with friends and family all over the world, which helps them stay young and sharp, Sandrich said.
“If it is easy for them to go online, they continue to learn,” she said. “That is the key of how people live to over 100.”
Ultimately, it’s about improving the quality of life.
“That’s all I’m trying to do,” Cook said. “It means they don’t have to sit back and watch the whole world go by, they can be a part of it.
“Once you learn something like this, other things start to take a little shape.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.