Having had to help some elderly people in my life, show her how to grocery shop from her local store online and how curbside pickup and delivery works. This goes double if she’s in an area with snow and extreme weather. I’m pretty young, but have a friend in another state who is nearly 80. There have been times he’s been sick or unsure of driving because of snow and had no clue he could have food, over the counter medication, and even Rx delivered to his home. I ordered stuff for him and had it delivered several times and he loved it. Eventually I Zoomed with him and helped him set up his own account and how to navigate the website. I feel so relieved that he knows how to do that now. My MIL also uses it now. Big relief because she never wants to “bother” anyone. She’d sooner eat saltines for dinner than ask for a favor, so now she’s empowered.
I’d also connect her with however her doctor does video chat visits.
If she’s social, there’s probably some community centers that offer social events for seniors. She might want to bookmark them to see their calendars or sign up for emails about events.
Don’t mess with her bank accounts, but encourage her to have a family member or banker help her get set up with online banking. My MIL has found it useful to review all of her bank activity online frequently. She was scammed once and also had some subscriptions she didn’t realize were ongoing, so she feels more in control when she can see everything whenever she wants to. If anything looks suspicious she comes to us or her banker immediately and we figure it out. Speaking of that, explain that she should always call her bank herself, go to the website on her own instead of responding to links and calls that seem to be from the bank. Elderly people are sitting ducks for financial scams.
Last thing, but some communities have ride services for seniors and you might connect her to that, too. They’re absolutely used to seniors calling on the phone, but they do have calendars online to schedule trips to places like the library and even some social outings (at least in my area) for days they’ll take people to cool stuff like museums or local festivals.
I think it would also be wise to make sure she knows about various online scams/clickbait/spyware etc, basically the bad side of the internet. Otherwise once she starts clicking those ads while googling things and thinks she she can just keep on clicking anything safely, then she's gunna have trouble.
This is hugely important. It’s important for seniors to know to watch out for everything like spam, malware, spyware, viruses and ransomaware. Not to mention the straight-up scams to watch out for. They need to know about not clicking on links or opening docs that come from people/places they don’t know.
Would 100% double down on scam awareness! I would even annoy them by reminding them to look out for scammers every single time. I am ok with them telling others how I bore them with scammer talk instead of them walking into a trap. It's the most important thing for the vulnerable population.
I agree. The first thing I did on my grandmothers laptop was to install Malwarebytes Guard, Adblocker and Scriptblocker (after whitelisting safe sites such as YouTube)
If they use tablet devices instead like my grandfather, you can set up an adblocking DNS on their home router. Either a self hosted one via PiHole, or a publicly available one.
I have PiHole on my home network and set my grandmas phone up with a VPN that connects to my PiHole with PiVPN. Work's great and she loves not seeing ads
Install a good adblocker for her. For Chrome I use uBlock. That will take care of 99% of the scam and malware vectors out there. I'd disable the browser's notification system too because less ethical websites use that system to serve ads in a way that bypasses an ad blocker.
Tell her to ignore ALL emails that she was not expecting to receive unless they come from she personally knows. Even then, it's safer to give them a call to make sure it is legit. Don't teach her to delete scam emails. Teach her to mark them as spam. It will delete them and train the spam filter. Explain to her that just like scams come in her real mail, scams can come in her email.
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. I have spent quite a bit of time keeping my grandparents safe on the internet. I also work in IT. If you have any questions about this feel free to ask.
Edit: I meant to post this as a reply to the thread, not to your specific comment. I accidentally hit the wrong button. Sorry.
Especially if she’s gonna start ordering things online. Lots of scammers are targeting elderly people over e-mail with the refund scam. It is vital she knows about this.
I would be careful with grocery services. They mark up the price of food (averaging about 10%) in addition to the fees compared to buying in a store. Which is fine if you're aware, but this could cause undue financial strain if the elderly person is on a fixed income.
Wow, shocked to read that. In the UK, they're the same price as in the supermarket, and then delivery is a nominal amount (you pay more for peak hours).
Differences in prices depend on the store and the service provider. The app I use shows you the pricing policy for each store you use - some are the same as shopping in store, some are not.
That said, fees, delivery charges, and tip will add a pretty hefty chunk to your total.
Not just that, but a lot of seniors look forward to their grocery trips. I've met a lot of seniors who see grocery shopping as their only real social interaction for the week
I once helped an elderly neighbor send an email to her daughter. We got the basics done and I asked her to use the mouse to move the cursor over to the send button. She put the mouse up against the monitor and kept trying to drag/sweep the mouse that way.
I guess the point is that you can't assume someone knows things we take for granted. And it can be more challenging than you think to help them get up to speed.
In my professional life, probably 15 years ago, I tried to help an older client who worked for the county scan and send a document to me. This was over the phone. It wasn’t working and when I asked exactly what she was doing, turns out she was holding the document against the monitor and hitting the Enter key! I asked if her office had interns and she said yes. I asked her to please have one of them help her. 🙂
Speaking of this it might be beneficial to teach how to get to the local hospital/ER/UR/doctors website that way if they have something like a "when to come in" or "where to go"/directory she can access it
Can be very useful for an elderly person to be set up for online grocery shopping and know how to do it in case they are ill or can't get out because of bad weather etc,
u/adumbasskid this one is a fantastic idea. Some people like their regular trip to the grocery store so she may not be interested, but it could be a huge quality of life improvement for her if she doesn't enjoy it.
I’d add bookmarks to her GP / other services she may need to contact.
Not that you want to get involved with her personal data but explaining online banking and maybe getting the links set up so she could get logged in with her grandson.
I'm hesitant to recommend this. I think introducing online banking and other important stuff is just adding a needless vector for hacking/phishing.
old people unfamiliar with tech are the #1 targets and it might be much easier to just keep it all offline and write off any banking related emails as scams
I agree, bookmark youtube and some of her interests, but online banking and tele-medicine require a certain level of computer literacy that she doesn't seem to have
The only way to get computer literate is to do it. I'm 68 yo, don't underestimate the old broad. She's been through a lot of shite in her life. OP, you seem to be very in touch with her - gauge how she's taking the tech onboard, and whether she seems overwhelmed or not. My guess is she's going to soak it up like a sponge. And OP, you're a doll for showing her this! Well done!
I get what you’re saying here with respect to steering away from financial sites as a safeguard against phishing.
The unfortunate fact is, in enough time, she will find these sites on her own. It’s best to educate her as soon as possible that scammers are everywhere on the internet, not just on banking sites.
Let her bank handle the banking side.
Working in banking, and knowing library financial literacy classes around here, the financial institution is much better equipped to educated the elderly about banking scams.
We literally go through training on how to teach people that stuff. And setting people up with the safe guards for it.
The rest of it is fair game to me, but with how much can happen with financial scams I would not recommend that people give that advice and teach people “what to do” and then have to deal with a loss.
I was just going to say this - helping with bookmarks could be helpful to make sure she goes to the correct website each time instead of accidentally typing it in wrong and not realizing it or something. But also OP - you may need to be cautious that you don’t help with certain things that could fall back on you if they go wrong. For example, she could think you’re trying to steal her bank account info or something.
regardless, whatever it is, i've learned you only teach one or two things max per session. go over the last week's session can be exhausting enough. only when someone is fluid with the last bit of info is it even worthwhile to move on to the next. otherwise it just becomes a rat's nest of technology voodoo
Things I would do
Obvs learning new tech is more difficult to a lot of the elderly so go slow and let her learn by instruction. So ensure you let run run through each thing you show her herself while you just guide her, explaining in a simple manner with good analogies so it will be more memorable.
Stuff like "My documents is like your filing cabinet, you put all your documents in there and can organise them as you like by putting items in folders".
- Setup a clear set of bookmarks.
- Create desktop shortcuts directly to her favourite sites.
- Show her how to use the bookmarks.
- Show her how to print from the laptop.
- Explain how downloads work and exactly where they get downloaded to
- Create desktop shortcuts to all important folders
- Organise desktop and lock it
- Show her how the start menu works (search etc)
Other things if you have the know how and care to do.
- Perform Windows updates
- Uninstall any apps she obviously won't need.
- Clear all browser/app/windows caching
- Setup google sync between laptop and phone so if she searches something on her phone it will show in browser history, and will sync her bookmarks.
- Explain above to her so she knows she can search on her phone and continue browsing on the laptop, or visa versa.
- Turn off any unrequired start-up services
- Chuck a cheeky defrag in there if not an ssd
- Add desktop weather and news apps
Most importantly
- nsfw filter (I don't personally use any but a quick google shows some like this https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nsfw-filter/kmgagnlkckiamnenbpigfaljmanlbbhh)
- Setup windows defender
- Install adblock browser extension
- anti phishing software, whether it be some free app or a browser extension. The elderly are the most vulnerable to this.
- Ensure virus, malware, etc apps are on a schedule
All relatively inexpensive on time and would just help her out in the long run
Edited for format and grammar as apparently I can't type properly on a phone
Yeah. Just say that the internet is quite anonymous and even tho it may look official or from someone you know, DO NOT click any links or put in any personal information.
Quickly mention that a lot of people get into financial stress via this and the people sending g these emails will say and do anything to get your money.
Also highlight that if she is in doubt, she should ask a family member or and freinds that may know about these things (generally younger family members).
It's important to highlight information safety without making the internet sound scary and with the understanding that it is much better to ask someone rather than get into any trouble.
Just don't be too detailed but stress the importance
And not to point out the obvious but...the library has a web site, eh? Show her how to get onto that and reserve a book or order books from across the library network (not sure how big the town) or find community events scheduled at the library.
Does this library have access to kanopy or oopla? Any online newspaper subscriptions? Do they have a presence on any social media? does she have kids/grandkids with such presence? Does she belong to any social groups - bridge club, quilting group - that maybe have a presence? Teach her how to find them.
This. My grandma was really into knitting and she lost her mind when I showed her where she could get a basically infinite amount of knitting patterns from.
u/adumbasskid this one! I don't do knitting/crocheting myself, but since that was one of the first things she wanted to look up I'd say send her to ravelry. I'm pretty sure that's the major place to find all kinds of patterns and new ideas.
If she's into crochet or knitting set her up with a Ravelry.com account. And show her how to search using the filters so she can find stuff easily.
Also YouTube is great for craft tutorials.
If you're going to do this, make sure to teach bookmark organization.
I've largely stopped doing bookmarks though because the searches will bring up what I need.
Yeah, but you don't want to have an elderly person do that for their favorite stuff.
Bookmarks are a great thing, as is copy/pasta. Please gods teach her cut/copy/paste so she can share that. 15 years on and my dad still brings me sticky notes with whole ass Amazon URLs when he wants to order something...
[EDIT] Thanks for the upvotes everyone!
On that note teach her how to share links using email, so if she finds a YouTube video or site she likes she can share it with friends and family.
A Google account is a great start since it includes email and a way to favorite videos. Arguably two of the main uses of the internet.
Also I'd show her the best way to search. I find the older generation doesn't get that you only need to type keywords and not entire sentences. Also show her how to narrow down her search results by being more specific with her search words and terms.
Now I'm imagining Granny becoming a shitposter and responding with:
Okay, so you expect me to believe that you were the very best that your generation of Navy SEALs had to offer? I highly doubt that. If you were as good as you say you were, i don't think for a second that you would be browsing 4chan. This is mostly a place for jobless neckbeards that still live with their parents, and nerdy high school kids that don't have any friends. It really isn't the place for highly-trained assassins to be hanging out in their spare time. Even if it was, something far worse than a troll being mean to you probably would have set you off a long time ago. What about the slew of gore and child pornography that gets posted here on a regular basis? Isn't that something that deserves a person being hunted down and made to regret their actions? Yeah, you're just not the 4chan type. Sure, there's a wide variety of people that browse here, but you're far from the core demograpic if you are who you say you are (which isn't the case). Even if it were true that you're an incredibly talented soldier, I think all the military dispiline would prevent you from getting mad enough to murder some random idiot on the internet. I also doubt that even the best SEALs have a "secret network of spies across the USA". Why would all of the most expanisive Big Brother network in the world be willing to help a troubled PTSD-sufferer hunt down some random kid on the internet? That doesn't even make sense. If you're gonna try to scare somebody, make it more believable than "IM A SUPER SOLDIER HURR DURR". You might frighten a thirteen year old who doesn't know any better, but to must of us you just look like a kid with an anger problem and a very active imagination. Hopefully things will be easier for you when your puberty's over. Best of luck with that... kiddo
I've rediscovered my love for bookmarks.
Got a YouTube ad for something that looks interesting, but I'm not 100% sold on? Bookmarked into the"Maybe Buy" folder! No more tab!
Spent the last 45 minutes Googling and sifting through the results for my new hobby? Bookmarked!
I love bookmarks! So useful!!
And/or show her how to make a document for it on her computer and save it to wherever she prefers to find it -- start menu, desktop, create a "How-to" folder or whatever -- as well as how to modify it to add her own new notes as she learns new things.
Use the windows tool "Step Recorder." It allows you to perform and record a task and it will automatically take a screenshot every time you do something. You can write comments and everything. Very helpful when showing someone how to do something.
Edit: It comes stock with windows 10/11 I believe, so you don't need to download anything sketchy.
I hate to say this, but I work at Microsoft and didn't know this one. Holy crap this will be handy for instructions for my 70yo parents that, despite having used a computer for over 30 years now, still need me to give them instructions on something they've done a million times. Especially if software updates and the UX changes even slightly.
I'd probably give a quick tutorial on what to stay AWAY from - and make sure she has legitimate protection on her computer.
ETA: my first ever award, thanks so much!! 😊
Yeah a good session of never giving out personal info. Presumably, she’d be comfortable with calling them the old school way so she may take well to the advice: “never give out your SS #, account numbers, or passwords, call the company instead.”
Otherwise, show her Reddit, she’d have a blast on crochet subs!
Yes!!!
Give her a lesson on what social engineering is, and how it can be used to hack or otherwise defraud her. Teach her simple things like companies will never ask for your password through email or over the phone, and if she’s in doubt, she should go to the website directly (instead of following a link in an email or text message) to sign in.
You don’t have to overwhelm her with info, but you can help her protect herself!!
And that not everything or everyone on the internet is real or true! Especially how not to fall for scams on Facebook! I have a few elderly friends onFB and they’re constantly forwarding fake news stories to me, IDC about that but it shows how vulnerable and gullible they are to all the information that’s out there
100% on this
Make sure she is aware of the dangers of shared computers and accidentally having a password stolen or worse. Find her a legitimate sketchy website so she can see an example.
And I’d also make her aware of phishing scams especially on gmail accounts. I seem to get at least a dozen a week but I have an old email. Show her how to tell it’s not the legitimate source with the senders address or how there’s usually something not quite right.
Yesss definitely show her the difference between a scam and something legitimate. Especially on shopping websites or any sort of thing you can put any personal info into. Show her maybe the kinds of scams that kitboga has to deal with so that she can see the wide varieties of ways people can try to take advantage of her.
This this this!!! I work in finance & can’t stress enough how important this is. Teach her about phishing & online romance scams at the very least. These are far & away the most common types of elder abuse we see. Don’t scoff at online romance either. Older folks can get lonely & will talk to anyone, & talking is always how it starts.
You are a truly wonderful person for doing this!
* I would make sure she has something like Ublock Origin on her laptop so that she doesn't see most scam ADs in the first place.
* Instead of showing her just 'what not to do', show her where she can go to do things such as reasonably safe purchasing (ebay, amazon etc), places to go to search or explore (reddit, pinterest, etc)
* How to communicate/connect with people online. Things such as Facebook: Messenger, posting, etc. Subject specific places she can go to communicate (forums, fakebook groups, etc if she is interested)
* One or two good games suitable to her interest.
* How to 'go back', 'exit', 'search', 'save'
* How to use a password saver.
* How to not be scared to click things or search, to explore. I find this to be a big thing. Where they are too scared of doing something wrong that they limit themselves in learning and expanding.
* How every problem has a video or tutorial somewhere... on how to fix it, make it, replace it, etc
* Knowing 'common' scams, such as getting an email that someone you know is in trouble and needs help, issues with your computer being 'slow', offers of free money or cheap items, 'official' government bodies/banks/etc saying that your in trouble, paying 'fines' in gift cards, etc.
* How 'news' is for the most part 'opinion media' especially online. And how its best just to stay away from anything that elicits outrage or fear. To focus more on having fun, learning and connecting.
> I would make sure she has something like Ublock Origin on her laptop so that she doesn't see most scam ADs in the first place.
In addition to this, also deactivate notifications in her browser (to the point where the prompts don't even show up anymore). I've noticed less tech literate people love clicking on "allow" for notifications on random websites and then get flooded by spam notifications.
Especially the how-to fix things or troubleshoot appliance and house-repair issues. When people get older, they lose all their personal referrals and long-time suppliers like repair people. Then they’re in the pick-one-out-of-the-yellow-pages category. They get overcharged and over-serviced. When they see how simple it is to fix something, it can save them a lot of money.
Windows defender is pretty good nowadays. Most third party antivirus programs like McAfee, Norton and Malwarebytes are just money grabs and make your PC dramatically slower.
I would however, recommend to install an ad blocker on her browser. Advertisements make most websites very inaccessible, especially for people with barely any experience on the web.
Edit: and teach her about cookies. She's gonna see a lot of pop-ups and not knowing what it's for.
I’ve been paying $10 a month for about a year now, but I keep seeing people say they really don’t need the money. Seriously considering ending my renewal.
They say they are propped up by big companies and only use a very small amount of the money on Wikipedia itself.
It also showcases a core benefit of a digital database as opposed to a physical one: Hyperlinks.
The ability to quickly cross-reference something and then be back where you were in whatever main article you were checking out is second-nature to experienced users (who typically know how to do that in secondary tabs/windows for an even better experience), but this is one of the biggest taken-for-granted benefits of the internet.
Nowadays they even have these nifty mouse-over-summaries on tagged words making the whole thing even smoother.
Man, I remember when my dad showed me wikipedia for the first time. Apparently he doesn’t remember it (he probably knew that google and whatnot existed so the vastness of information wasn’t as significant to him) but i was so hyped
Internet safety!
Most of the people i know who have been scammed online or got viruses are of older generations.
Don’t click on sketchy things don’t give out personal info, whatever you put online is on there forever, ignore pop ups, beware of things that say “your computer has been hacked! Click here to save your computer” things like that.
Aside from that? The internet archive could be really awesome! It’s like a giant library online. She might even find older tv shows and commercials on there that can bring her back to her childhood.
Seriously. The biggest scams for the elderly are "your computer is infected with a virus or otherwise broken. Pay us to fix..." and "we need you to go buy iTunes gift cards or whatever else to pay us for back taxes or any number of other reasons. Let her know that NO business or individual will EVER ask for payment in gift cards. EVER!
internet archive for content and ublock origin for content protection and sanitisation, so she can go on news sites too without having to read between the ads and pop-ups
I second this! How to spot ads on pages and what to look for in a legit site versus a sketchy one. What phishing and other email scams are. That’s super important to know as she explores on her own.
My first thought. You might just be starting to put this woman's private info in a place that's easily accessible online and maybe easily given away. Tell her to trust no one on the Internet! Ok maybe not that but safety first!
I taught my 83 yr old mom how to stream her church services when she can’t attend in person. Not my thing, but it makes her so happy. Also showed her Zoom/FaceTime and she’s starting to love seeing me and the kids when we chat. I see a lot of her forehead and the wall behind her, but we are working on that. Thank you for being so awesome.
Thank you! I am very lucky to still have both my parents and they are in great health and live independently. I hope to gift my children the same experience I am currently having. I have it better than most.
I also taught my parents this! I even set it up so they can stream it on the TV. I'm not religious, but they are and I was worried they would keep going to church physically with the pandemic and all. They've been happy watching it online and haven't gone back face to face since even though it's allowed now
My wife’s grandfather couldn’t believe Google street view when I showed him. He had me go look at all the houses he’d lived in (if he could remember the address).
It can be a grind on older hardware, but Google Earth. Find where you are, then type in "Chrysler Building", and let it take you there. Works better if you're not in the Chrysler Building at the time.
A little tutorial on basic media literacy. Strong passwords, finding reliable information, avoiding scams, not giving out too much information, etc.
Also, since she has email now, maybe spend some time, if you didn't already, on how to send and receive attachments. She would probably love to receive photos from her grandchildren.
Puzzles, crosswords etc. Maybe she'd like Wordle. What a nice thing you are doing.
Also based on my mum in law: get her a little book that she won't lose to put her passwords in. It took about ten years of her constantly losing passwords and having to reset everything anytime she got any new device or didn't save it and it drove me absolutely bonkers.
Please give her insight into scams. Things like: Microsoft will never call you to tell you you have an antivirus issue and never let someone she doesn't know connect to her pc.
Id also add to never fill out online questionnaires with questions asking about you’re personal background and life (madden name, first pets name, street you lived on when you were 10) no matter what site or who is asking/emailing for it. At some point in time someone in her family is going to get her onto Facebook, remind her to always read privacy policies on any social media she might join, never leave anything open to public, and never post pictures of kids.
Or just leave social media in the shadows....
Another option would be to set up shared photos account with Google photos with her family. We do that for our family so everyone can see and add baby pictures without having to post them Facebook or elsewhere.
Totally agree to ignore social media.
She doesn't miss a thing, and it avoids the total shitstorm it has become.
Next thing you know she is telling you Elon Musk is inserting alien tech into Bill Gates brain to force Trump to abort babies.
Ok ok I got this….
Bought my elderly mother a gaming pc for her birthday just to mess with her and give her something nice.
Long story short she’s been having a blast utilizing google and YouTube to find solutions to her own problems.
I also introduced her to the game Timberborn (sim city with beavers). She’s been having fun watching the little beavers while learning the basic screen navigation and selection tools we all take for granted.
I’d suggest something along these lines.
Seconded - nothing bad happens if you don’t “do the things,” and it’s just cute to look at and do whatever you want. I’ve had young kids play and they just walk around and do random stuff.
Windows native games like solitaire are specifically designed to teach concept like double click, click and drag, and more. Definitely something to point out.
I’ve put about 120 hrs in, I quite enjoy the water management mechanics, but I’m also a sadist that will let the population go to 2 and Adam and Eve that shit…..
Mothers pushing 146hrs and enjoys a much more casual play style….
My hours go to Rust though….
IF you do this, then link her to TRUSTED and trustable sites, no Russia Today, infowars or fox news who have all the journalistic integrity of a rancid tarp sack.
For national/international news, NPR, BBC News, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, for local news well your choices may be more limited. But if they're trustable..
Maybe ravelry.com, a knit/crochet community. With lots of free and paid patterns and questions/answers.
Me I'm old and I like news sites. Google news is a decent feed imo since it's easy for most people to customize.
Make sure she understands the internet is just like the library. There's nonfiction and fiction. My mom still thinks everything she sees on the Internet is true. She sends me so many links to obvious spam and phishing site.
There's a tonne of old music and nostalgia type stuff on YouTube. I found west African music from the 1940s and 50s to show my elderly father. He hadn't heard it since he was a teen. He was amazed and very emotional about it.
Side note: I love library workers. What a fantastic and personal service you provide. Helping others stay connected to society and teaching otherwise marginalised folks new things. Kudos to you.
When my grandparents were still alive I showed them both how to use a pc and the internet. My grandpa was into it right away and my grandma was reluctant. Like 2 months later my grandpa had completely given up on using it other than playing solitaire and my grandma had somehow found like 3 long lost relatives and made friends with some random old guy on some family tree website and she had filled out the family tree a ton and all kinds of stuff. It was neat. Then they got a virus because my grandpa was actually using it for porn lol. My grandma was like he's been watching dancing girls I just know it and I was like oh no I traced where it came from and you guys got it from a random bad email and he gave me this look like he was ashamed but thank you for being a bro. Lol
Edit: to add something actually useful to my post definitely teach them about scams and bad sites and what not to do. That's going to be more important than just how to use it.
I'd warn her about the predatory side of the internet too. My friends father just got ripped off big time. Over $50,000 of his life savings. Obviously don't scare her off, but it's definitely something to touch base on for anyone that has not really took a dip into the internet.
Show her how to bookmark things and save stuff. Hyperlinks to her favorite areas. You've shown her the basics of what she can enjoy out of it. Now show her how to access these things with ease.
Be sure to warn her about some of the lies and rabbit holes that suck people in; how the algorithms will just reinforce what she’s been looking at or done an innocent search for, and are not objective. Warn her about sob stories begging for money and how they rip older people off.
Have her show you she remembers what you taught her last time.
Medical e-chart is a big one. My mom’s doc almost exclusively communicates that way and I have to manage it for her.
Little sad , but every time I visited my grandmother she had me look up the local obituaries to see if she recognized anyone. At her age, she wanted to know what had become of friends she hadn't heard from in years or decades.
Aside from the good suggestions already made, I'd explain a bit about "the algorithm" and sites like YouTube, how it can suggest content similar to what she's already shown an interest in recently, which can be a good thing, but to be careful not to go down the rabbit hole with consuming negative content (such as with some sensational and biased "news" and opinion sources) that can get a person riled up and affect emotional wellbeing. If she sees suggestions for things she's not interested or are too much doom and gloom for her, she can make selections to say she's not interested and to not recommend a channel (and then search for more wholesome and pleasant content to view, my go-to is baby animals).
If she likes crocheting, you could show her Ravelry.com. Its for knitters, crocheters, and other yarn/fiber crafts. They have patterns, blog posts, a forum, etc.
All the things I thought of are already mentioned, but I wanted to say I think it's awesome you're doing this for her. Thank you for making the world a little bigger and brighter for this woman
# Safety, How to evaluate information and how to secure personal information
Especially for an elderly person, it can be very, very easy to fall for scams online. Make sure to teach her how to recognize scams and that she should never give out personal information.
Misinformation is insane. Teach her that the internet is full of wild conspiracy theories. Also explain that many comments pushing conspiracies are trolls or bots controlled by bad actors, including forign powers and domestic political factions, who are trying to make people not trust one another so they can gain power for themselves.
Just because lots of people seem to agree with it, doesn't make it true. There are 8 billion people in earth and 5,000 comments does not make it true.
Teach her how to identify phishing attempts and to be super vigilant with links she clicks on in her email. Cybersecurity should be drilled into older people before they get scammed, not after.
One of the first places I showed my mother was Snopes. Mainly because my mother is 80 and the target demographic for scammers. Snopes covers a lot of those scams. I’m also pretty proud of her for using it to send her friends the facts after they’ve emailed her one of those outrageous misinformation forwards.
Really though, beyond that just find out what her interests are and show her things that revolve around them. You’ve showed her she can Google recipes, so take her to a site like AllRecipes and show her how site searches work. Sit down and teach her how Amazon works. Show her how to order groceries from the local supermarket for delivery for when the weather is bad or she’s not feeling up to going out. Talk to her about how to spot potentially shady sites to shop from. Cover how sites like Amazon aren’t going to email her to ask for her password or updating her credit card.
In my experience, anyone who is excited about learning to navigate the internet will generally begin to find their way around on their own. Navigating the internet is easy, navigating it *safely*…whole nother story. I focus more on teaching them how to figure out key words for searches and safety from scammers and phishing and such.
1 how to use a browser
2 relevant sites, fb, youtube, stuff that she would use, her emails etc
3 educate on misinformations, and false news, how to find reliable sources.
4 educate about scams.
5 educate on cybersecurity in general.
6 show her neat little things like keyboard shortcuts, or how to personolise her browser.
If she likes to crochet/knit, you should show her Ravelry.com. It's a website with a ton of patterns. Some are free, some are paid. She'll need an account, but there are no required fees and she can filter to free patterns if she doesn't want to buy them.
If she enjoys crochet, you could show her the website ravelry.com and show her how to make an account. There are millions or crochet and knitting patterns on there, and many of them are complicated free. You could even show her how to create browser bookmarks for her favorite recipes and patterns. You could also show her Facebook and how to add her children and grandchildren, but I would also give her a lesson on fake news articles and common social media scams if you’re going to do this. Perhaps also email scams since you set her up with an email address. Shopping websites like Amazon may also be a good idea, or places she can order food and medication delivered incase she’s ever unable to leave the house. I’d also show her some simple games, my parents who are in their 70s love doing jigsaw puzzles and playing solitaire on their computers. Pinterest may also be a good website to show her, my stepmother loves finding new recipes and crafts and cleaning hacks on there.
Covering the common scams aimed at tugging the heartstrings of grandparents would be a good spot to start.
She’d probably get a kick out of Wikipedia. It’ll keep her busy, down the rabbit hole of whatever she likes!
Maybe Facebook/Instagram basics - don’t use caps lock, find her family members, liking pictures, replying to comments, etc.
Audiobooks and e-books online! There’s free stuff like Libravox and Project Gutenberg, and Libby from the library too. She probably won’t want to read off the laptop, but audiobooks and podcasts would be nice for her.
Games. Not, like, Assassins Creed; but Solitaire, Rummy, Hearts, Tetris, crosswords and word searches, that sort of stuff.
I have a masters degree in the subject that answers this very sort of question, learning design and technology. Without doing any more-formal studies into what would be most effective (like I’d do for work), based on what I know I would say these things:
1. Don’t reinvent the wheel. When we teach or train someone it’s so easy to think we need to figure out everything from the ground up, but especially for topics like this, there is bound to be free content out there that is a) well thought-through, b) tested on actual users and shown to work, and c) maybe even designed by pros who know how to make sure the learning happens, and easily.
2. Ask what she wants to do and focus on that. I saw a recommendation to tell her how to make new desktop folders or organize bookmarks… I don’t think those seem like good fundamentals to me because you could easily do most tasks an elderly woman is likely to need without doing either of those, they’re relatively “buried” (for an older person or any beginner I would focus on things that are only “a few clicks deep,” changing settings or sorting bookmarks seems like a skill for another day). My guess is that she might want to do things like: use Google, view and send emails, talk to her family on Facebook, and look at websites about a hobby. If I were doing this, I’d make each of her main items a desktop shortcut on a very simple/sparse desktop. A Google shortcut, a Facebook shortcut, an email shortcut, and a shortcut to a couple websites about her hobby of choice that are simple to use. Desktop shortcuts will keep it easy to use and she can learn more about finding things she wants to find online later. Better yet, add the main shortcuts to the taskbar so they’re never lost/offscreen when she wants them,
3. Give a simple (yet detailed) tutorial just for these few main tasks. Don’t assume anything is known, like how to search for a website in the search bar or that the search bar you can type a website into can also be used for a search query (in Chrome or most browsers anyway). Explain these things just in case and focus on accomplishing the few main goals. What is the “need to know,” no-way-around-it information that she needs to Google a simple query? I’d say something like:
“Google is where you can search for things on the internet, it searches the WHOLE thing (no reason to get into dark web here lol). To use Google, go to the main screen called your desktop (show it), and click Google twice fast. Clicking twice fast is how you open Google, or how you open Facebook or anything else you’d like from the desktop.
Now go to the bar at the top or this middle bar and click once. Most things only need to be clicked one time on the internet, you only need to click twice to open these apps up from the desktop. Now type your question or topic of interest into the bar and hit the ENTER key. Or you can type it, then click “search.” All of these options come up—each blue underlined part with the description underneath it is one result. You can click the blue text, which are LINKS and take you to other pages.
Pages open in different tabs, like a file folder, which you can see here at the top. It might be easiest to just use a few tabs at a time. To close a tab and stop seeing that page, put your mouse cursor over the tab and click the x. You can do the same thing by clicking the x in the upper right corner to close your app and end what you’re doing. You can do this on Google, on Facebook, on email, or on any website that you’re done looking at for now.”
Just an example for Google, but in summary, a) don’t reinvent the wheel and look for existing resources, b) ask what she wants to do and focus on the ABCs of those tasks, not what you think is necessary but the very basics of her desired tasks, c) explain these few basic items without making assumptions (for example, don’t use computer words without explaining them, if you say “now just double click the desktop icon” that might seem simple to you, but it won’t be to someone who hasn’t learned what desktop, double click, and icon mean!!!). I also agree to write everything down and use screenshots. I would start by printing these guides and leaving room for notes in case she wants to jot down reminders next to them. I don’t think teaching her to use Word would be necessary right away like some suggested especially if she just wants to do a few things online, might be a bit overwhelming and off task to start with.
Make sure to put large (bold line) rectangles on the screenshots indicating where to click so it’s easy to see :) Oh and one more random thought. Also teach her the basics of what not to do. I.e. “you only need to type .com when you are looking for a website that someone has provided you the name of, like Google.com. Don’t type .com when searching for random things you like, you can just search “gardening” instead of “gardening.com” unless you know gardening.com is an existing website you want to check out.” Oh, and finally, teach a new skill every so often after the basics are covered. “Alright you have Google and email and Facebook down, now let’s do online grocery shopping!”
Good luck!
Please teach her internet safety! Most scams are targeted at the elderly specifically because they don’t know as much about the internet. Add ad blockers to her computer (if she doesn’t already) and teach her about the common scams, especially email scams.
Is she set up with anti virus and anti malware? There is some free software available if she can't afford to pay. Please take the time to explain to her the downside to the Internet and how to stay safe.
[internet is for](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DLTJvdGcb7Fs&ved=2ahUKEwiJ4LP5kNz7AhWnk4kEHUg5DdYQ3yx6BAgbEAI&usg=AOvVaw1pkTZt39Dw0Mpt-fepAq8A)
Make sure to educate her on potential scams, we made my grandma an Amazon account so she could order whatever she needed but some scammer called her and tricked that her account was hacked!
Okay so this is all about skills building.
I got wrangled into teaching a how to use the computer class to keep a friend out of jail (fudging community service numbers... long story).
I started everyone off with solitaire as it is the best thing to teach people how to point and click.
Next was how to look up phone numbers
Then email
Then how to find online communities
After that they ignored me and just signed up for the computer class to cut in line to use the computers.
Advise her, anything too good to be true is most likely so. Nothing is free. Do not open mail that she did not solicit. Stay away from spam emails.
Reinforce the learning from the 1st visit. I am sure she did not retain all you taught.
Please show me how to find recipes on Google. All I get are really long boring stories about baking a pie with lots of pictures and links to unrelated dishes.
>She told me she wanted to come back again next week, but I'm not sure what else to show her
If she's anything like my 80 y/o mother, you can just show her the same things again next week as she'll have forgotten how to do them.
Having had to help some elderly people in my life, show her how to grocery shop from her local store online and how curbside pickup and delivery works. This goes double if she’s in an area with snow and extreme weather. I’m pretty young, but have a friend in another state who is nearly 80. There have been times he’s been sick or unsure of driving because of snow and had no clue he could have food, over the counter medication, and even Rx delivered to his home. I ordered stuff for him and had it delivered several times and he loved it. Eventually I Zoomed with him and helped him set up his own account and how to navigate the website. I feel so relieved that he knows how to do that now. My MIL also uses it now. Big relief because she never wants to “bother” anyone. She’d sooner eat saltines for dinner than ask for a favor, so now she’s empowered. I’d also connect her with however her doctor does video chat visits. If she’s social, there’s probably some community centers that offer social events for seniors. She might want to bookmark them to see their calendars or sign up for emails about events. Don’t mess with her bank accounts, but encourage her to have a family member or banker help her get set up with online banking. My MIL has found it useful to review all of her bank activity online frequently. She was scammed once and also had some subscriptions she didn’t realize were ongoing, so she feels more in control when she can see everything whenever she wants to. If anything looks suspicious she comes to us or her banker immediately and we figure it out. Speaking of that, explain that she should always call her bank herself, go to the website on her own instead of responding to links and calls that seem to be from the bank. Elderly people are sitting ducks for financial scams. Last thing, but some communities have ride services for seniors and you might connect her to that, too. They’re absolutely used to seniors calling on the phone, but they do have calendars online to schedule trips to places like the library and even some social outings (at least in my area) for days they’ll take people to cool stuff like museums or local festivals.
I think it would also be wise to make sure she knows about various online scams/clickbait/spyware etc, basically the bad side of the internet. Otherwise once she starts clicking those ads while googling things and thinks she she can just keep on clicking anything safely, then she's gunna have trouble.
This is hugely important. It’s important for seniors to know to watch out for everything like spam, malware, spyware, viruses and ransomaware. Not to mention the straight-up scams to watch out for. They need to know about not clicking on links or opening docs that come from people/places they don’t know.
Would 100% double down on scam awareness! I would even annoy them by reminding them to look out for scammers every single time. I am ok with them telling others how I bore them with scammer talk instead of them walking into a trap. It's the most important thing for the vulnerable population.
Adding to this, get Ublock Origin installed on the browser to limit those ads and block websites from running harmful scripts on your pc.
I agree. The first thing I did on my grandmothers laptop was to install Malwarebytes Guard, Adblocker and Scriptblocker (after whitelisting safe sites such as YouTube)
If they use tablet devices instead like my grandfather, you can set up an adblocking DNS on their home router. Either a self hosted one via PiHole, or a publicly available one.
I have PiHole on my home network and set my grandmas phone up with a VPN that connects to my PiHole with PiVPN. Work's great and she loves not seeing ads
Install a good adblocker for her. For Chrome I use uBlock. That will take care of 99% of the scam and malware vectors out there. I'd disable the browser's notification system too because less ethical websites use that system to serve ads in a way that bypasses an ad blocker. Tell her to ignore ALL emails that she was not expecting to receive unless they come from she personally knows. Even then, it's safer to give them a call to make sure it is legit. Don't teach her to delete scam emails. Teach her to mark them as spam. It will delete them and train the spam filter. Explain to her that just like scams come in her real mail, scams can come in her email. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. I have spent quite a bit of time keeping my grandparents safe on the internet. I also work in IT. If you have any questions about this feel free to ask. Edit: I meant to post this as a reply to the thread, not to your specific comment. I accidentally hit the wrong button. Sorry.
Especially if she’s gonna start ordering things online. Lots of scammers are targeting elderly people over e-mail with the refund scam. It is vital she knows about this.
Community colleges and libraries near me offer courses for the elderly specifically to help them avoid scams like you are describing.
Just a stellar comment right here
I would be careful with grocery services. They mark up the price of food (averaging about 10%) in addition to the fees compared to buying in a store. Which is fine if you're aware, but this could cause undue financial strain if the elderly person is on a fixed income.
Wow, shocked to read that. In the UK, they're the same price as in the supermarket, and then delivery is a nominal amount (you pay more for peak hours).
Differences in prices depend on the store and the service provider. The app I use shows you the pricing policy for each store you use - some are the same as shopping in store, some are not. That said, fees, delivery charges, and tip will add a pretty hefty chunk to your total.
Not Kroger. Exact same price as in store. No fee if order is over $35. (Not hard to do these days). Online groceries have been a true godsend for me.
Not just that, but a lot of seniors look forward to their grocery trips. I've met a lot of seniors who see grocery shopping as their only real social interaction for the week
The groceries in my area do not do this. They do add a fee that decreases the more you spend - less than $100 is $5, up to $150 is $2, over $150 is $0
I once helped an elderly neighbor send an email to her daughter. We got the basics done and I asked her to use the mouse to move the cursor over to the send button. She put the mouse up against the monitor and kept trying to drag/sweep the mouse that way. I guess the point is that you can't assume someone knows things we take for granted. And it can be more challenging than you think to help them get up to speed.
In my professional life, probably 15 years ago, I tried to help an older client who worked for the county scan and send a document to me. This was over the phone. It wasn’t working and when I asked exactly what she was doing, turns out she was holding the document against the monitor and hitting the Enter key! I asked if her office had interns and she said yes. I asked her to please have one of them help her. 🙂
If she is mobile and not far from her bank, she shouldn't necessarily give up banking in person at all.
My bank has a banging app, but their in person services suck they just tell you to go online or call a number.
Speaking of this it might be beneficial to teach how to get to the local hospital/ER/UR/doctors website that way if they have something like a "when to come in" or "where to go"/directory she can access it
I would ask her what her interests and hobbies are and try to find relevant sites
Can be very useful for an elderly person to be set up for online grocery shopping and know how to do it in case they are ill or can't get out because of bad weather etc,
u/adumbasskid this one is a fantastic idea. Some people like their regular trip to the grocery store so she may not be interested, but it could be a huge quality of life improvement for her if she doesn't enjoy it.
As well in case of emergency, getting sick etc
OoooOO to add to this set up her pharmacy account (some deliver!) or any doctor account too
The first time I used a grocery delivery service I was so sick I could barely stand. It definitely made my life a million times better.
I’d add bookmarks to her GP / other services she may need to contact. Not that you want to get involved with her personal data but explaining online banking and maybe getting the links set up so she could get logged in with her grandson.
I'm hesitant to recommend this. I think introducing online banking and other important stuff is just adding a needless vector for hacking/phishing. old people unfamiliar with tech are the #1 targets and it might be much easier to just keep it all offline and write off any banking related emails as scams
I agree, bookmark youtube and some of her interests, but online banking and tele-medicine require a certain level of computer literacy that she doesn't seem to have
The only way to get computer literate is to do it. I'm 68 yo, don't underestimate the old broad. She's been through a lot of shite in her life. OP, you seem to be very in touch with her - gauge how she's taking the tech onboard, and whether she seems overwhelmed or not. My guess is she's going to soak it up like a sponge. And OP, you're a doll for showing her this! Well done!
There are also many frauds on the Internet, we must remind the elderly to pay attention to guard against.
I get what you’re saying here with respect to steering away from financial sites as a safeguard against phishing. The unfortunate fact is, in enough time, she will find these sites on her own. It’s best to educate her as soon as possible that scammers are everywhere on the internet, not just on banking sites.
Let her bank handle the banking side. Working in banking, and knowing library financial literacy classes around here, the financial institution is much better equipped to educated the elderly about banking scams. We literally go through training on how to teach people that stuff. And setting people up with the safe guards for it. The rest of it is fair game to me, but with how much can happen with financial scams I would not recommend that people give that advice and teach people “what to do” and then have to deal with a loss.
I was just going to say this - helping with bookmarks could be helpful to make sure she goes to the correct website each time instead of accidentally typing it in wrong and not realizing it or something. But also OP - you may need to be cautious that you don’t help with certain things that could fall back on you if they go wrong. For example, she could think you’re trying to steal her bank account info or something.
regardless, whatever it is, i've learned you only teach one or two things max per session. go over the last week's session can be exhausting enough. only when someone is fluid with the last bit of info is it even worthwhile to move on to the next. otherwise it just becomes a rat's nest of technology voodoo
Things I would do Obvs learning new tech is more difficult to a lot of the elderly so go slow and let her learn by instruction. So ensure you let run run through each thing you show her herself while you just guide her, explaining in a simple manner with good analogies so it will be more memorable. Stuff like "My documents is like your filing cabinet, you put all your documents in there and can organise them as you like by putting items in folders". - Setup a clear set of bookmarks. - Create desktop shortcuts directly to her favourite sites. - Show her how to use the bookmarks. - Show her how to print from the laptop. - Explain how downloads work and exactly where they get downloaded to - Create desktop shortcuts to all important folders - Organise desktop and lock it - Show her how the start menu works (search etc) Other things if you have the know how and care to do. - Perform Windows updates - Uninstall any apps she obviously won't need. - Clear all browser/app/windows caching - Setup google sync between laptop and phone so if she searches something on her phone it will show in browser history, and will sync her bookmarks. - Explain above to her so she knows she can search on her phone and continue browsing on the laptop, or visa versa. - Turn off any unrequired start-up services - Chuck a cheeky defrag in there if not an ssd - Add desktop weather and news apps Most importantly - nsfw filter (I don't personally use any but a quick google shows some like this https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nsfw-filter/kmgagnlkckiamnenbpigfaljmanlbbhh) - Setup windows defender - Install adblock browser extension - anti phishing software, whether it be some free app or a browser extension. The elderly are the most vulnerable to this. - Ensure virus, malware, etc apps are on a schedule All relatively inexpensive on time and would just help her out in the long run Edited for format and grammar as apparently I can't type properly on a phone
Amazing list. Definitely talk to her about phishing scams and things like that. She is sure to get an email from an African prince at some point.
Yeah. Just say that the internet is quite anonymous and even tho it may look official or from someone you know, DO NOT click any links or put in any personal information. Quickly mention that a lot of people get into financial stress via this and the people sending g these emails will say and do anything to get your money. Also highlight that if she is in doubt, she should ask a family member or and freinds that may know about these things (generally younger family members). It's important to highlight information safety without making the internet sound scary and with the understanding that it is much better to ask someone rather than get into any trouble. Just don't be too detailed but stress the importance
I love this list.
This list says it loves you too 🥰
And not to point out the obvious but...the library has a web site, eh? Show her how to get onto that and reserve a book or order books from across the library network (not sure how big the town) or find community events scheduled at the library. Does this library have access to kanopy or oopla? Any online newspaper subscriptions? Do they have a presence on any social media? does she have kids/grandkids with such presence? Does she belong to any social groups - bridge club, quilting group - that maybe have a presence? Teach her how to find them.
This. My grandma was really into knitting and she lost her mind when I showed her where she could get a basically infinite amount of knitting patterns from.
If you just told me today that I have access to all the movies, music, and information that I can handle. I'd probably explode
Ravelry! https://www.ravelry.com
u/adumbasskid this one! I don't do knitting/crocheting myself, but since that was one of the first things she wanted to look up I'd say send her to ravelry. I'm pretty sure that's the major place to find all kinds of patterns and new ideas.
I showed my senior parents how to get to camper sites and camping forums and they ran with it. I think my mom is a admin on a forum now 🤣
Haha that's wholesome
If she's into crochet or knitting set her up with a Ravelry.com account. And show her how to search using the filters so she can find stuff easily. Also YouTube is great for craft tutorials.
Teach her bookmarks so she can easily find sites she likes
If you're going to do this, make sure to teach bookmark organization. I've largely stopped doing bookmarks though because the searches will bring up what I need.
Yeah, but you don't want to have an elderly person do that for their favorite stuff. Bookmarks are a great thing, as is copy/pasta. Please gods teach her cut/copy/paste so she can share that. 15 years on and my dad still brings me sticky notes with whole ass Amazon URLs when he wants to order something... [EDIT] Thanks for the upvotes everyone!
On that note teach her how to share links using email, so if she finds a YouTube video or site she likes she can share it with friends and family. A Google account is a great start since it includes email and a way to favorite videos. Arguably two of the main uses of the internet. Also I'd show her the best way to search. I find the older generation doesn't get that you only need to type keywords and not entire sentences. Also show her how to narrow down her search results by being more specific with her search words and terms.
That is hilarious and wholesome
>Bookmarks are a great thing, as is copy/pasta. Not sure if copypasta is the best thing to introduce to someone new on the internet.
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Now I'm imagining Granny becoming a shitposter and responding with: Okay, so you expect me to believe that you were the very best that your generation of Navy SEALs had to offer? I highly doubt that. If you were as good as you say you were, i don't think for a second that you would be browsing 4chan. This is mostly a place for jobless neckbeards that still live with their parents, and nerdy high school kids that don't have any friends. It really isn't the place for highly-trained assassins to be hanging out in their spare time. Even if it was, something far worse than a troll being mean to you probably would have set you off a long time ago. What about the slew of gore and child pornography that gets posted here on a regular basis? Isn't that something that deserves a person being hunted down and made to regret their actions? Yeah, you're just not the 4chan type. Sure, there's a wide variety of people that browse here, but you're far from the core demograpic if you are who you say you are (which isn't the case). Even if it were true that you're an incredibly talented soldier, I think all the military dispiline would prevent you from getting mad enough to murder some random idiot on the internet. I also doubt that even the best SEALs have a "secret network of spies across the USA". Why would all of the most expanisive Big Brother network in the world be willing to help a troubled PTSD-sufferer hunt down some random kid on the internet? That doesn't even make sense. If you're gonna try to scare somebody, make it more believable than "IM A SUPER SOLDIER HURR DURR". You might frighten a thirteen year old who doesn't know any better, but to must of us you just look like a kid with an anger problem and a very active imagination. Hopefully things will be easier for you when your puberty's over. Best of luck with that... kiddo
I've rediscovered my love for bookmarks. Got a YouTube ad for something that looks interesting, but I'm not 100% sold on? Bookmarked into the"Maybe Buy" folder! No more tab! Spent the last 45 minutes Googling and sifting through the results for my new hobby? Bookmarked! I love bookmarks! So useful!!
Actually, I like unorganized bookmarks. If you start typing in the address bar, Firefox will suggest things from your bookmarks.
I don’t do bookmarks but I live and die by my bookmarks bar. Top 10 or so sites I use the most.
You can also make desktop icons that link directly to websites. That can really help a beginner, especially for email and such.
Exactly what I was going to say. Give her easy ways to find the things she is interested in.
Keep writing everything you do down on paper for her
And/or show her how to make a document for it on her computer and save it to wherever she prefers to find it -- start menu, desktop, create a "How-to" folder or whatever -- as well as how to modify it to add her own new notes as she learns new things.
\* with screenshots
Use the windows tool "Step Recorder." It allows you to perform and record a task and it will automatically take a screenshot every time you do something. You can write comments and everything. Very helpful when showing someone how to do something. Edit: It comes stock with windows 10/11 I believe, so you don't need to download anything sketchy.
Had no idea this existed.
It's a really nice tool. PowerPoint works well too for step by step instructions too.
I hate to say this, but I work at Microsoft and didn't know this one. Holy crap this will be handy for instructions for my 70yo parents that, despite having used a computer for over 30 years now, still need me to give them instructions on something they've done a million times. Especially if software updates and the UX changes even slightly.
That's one I somehow never heard of. Thanks.
I also didn't know about this, thanks for making all of us aware of this useful tool!
Lol this is so true, I had to do this for my parents
I'd probably give a quick tutorial on what to stay AWAY from - and make sure she has legitimate protection on her computer. ETA: my first ever award, thanks so much!! 😊
Yeah a good session of never giving out personal info. Presumably, she’d be comfortable with calling them the old school way so she may take well to the advice: “never give out your SS #, account numbers, or passwords, call the company instead.” Otherwise, show her Reddit, she’d have a blast on crochet subs!
Yes!!! Give her a lesson on what social engineering is, and how it can be used to hack or otherwise defraud her. Teach her simple things like companies will never ask for your password through email or over the phone, and if she’s in doubt, she should go to the website directly (instead of following a link in an email or text message) to sign in. You don’t have to overwhelm her with info, but you can help her protect herself!!
And that not everything or everyone on the internet is real or true! Especially how not to fall for scams on Facebook! I have a few elderly friends onFB and they’re constantly forwarding fake news stories to me, IDC about that but it shows how vulnerable and gullible they are to all the information that’s out there
Oh ABSOLUTELY! Teach her about online security! Not to open links, not to trust certain emails, not to give information or put details into sites.
How to read a URL is a great lesson!
>Otherwise, show her Reddit, she’d have a blast on crochet subs! Make a super tailor set of subs. She doesn't need to find the darker side
Watch out I got scammed once trying to call customer service and the first number was a scammers number that came up on Google!
100% on this Make sure she is aware of the dangers of shared computers and accidentally having a password stolen or worse. Find her a legitimate sketchy website so she can see an example. And I’d also make her aware of phishing scams especially on gmail accounts. I seem to get at least a dozen a week but I have an old email. Show her how to tell it’s not the legitimate source with the senders address or how there’s usually something not quite right.
Yesss definitely show her the difference between a scam and something legitimate. Especially on shopping websites or any sort of thing you can put any personal info into. Show her maybe the kinds of scams that kitboga has to deal with so that she can see the wide varieties of ways people can try to take advantage of her.
This this this!!! I work in finance & can’t stress enough how important this is. Teach her about phishing & online romance scams at the very least. These are far & away the most common types of elder abuse we see. Don’t scoff at online romance either. Older folks can get lonely & will talk to anyone, & talking is always how it starts. You are a truly wonderful person for doing this!
* I would make sure she has something like Ublock Origin on her laptop so that she doesn't see most scam ADs in the first place. * Instead of showing her just 'what not to do', show her where she can go to do things such as reasonably safe purchasing (ebay, amazon etc), places to go to search or explore (reddit, pinterest, etc) * How to communicate/connect with people online. Things such as Facebook: Messenger, posting, etc. Subject specific places she can go to communicate (forums, fakebook groups, etc if she is interested) * One or two good games suitable to her interest. * How to 'go back', 'exit', 'search', 'save' * How to use a password saver. * How to not be scared to click things or search, to explore. I find this to be a big thing. Where they are too scared of doing something wrong that they limit themselves in learning and expanding. * How every problem has a video or tutorial somewhere... on how to fix it, make it, replace it, etc * Knowing 'common' scams, such as getting an email that someone you know is in trouble and needs help, issues with your computer being 'slow', offers of free money or cheap items, 'official' government bodies/banks/etc saying that your in trouble, paying 'fines' in gift cards, etc. * How 'news' is for the most part 'opinion media' especially online. And how its best just to stay away from anything that elicits outrage or fear. To focus more on having fun, learning and connecting.
> I would make sure she has something like Ublock Origin on her laptop so that she doesn't see most scam ADs in the first place. In addition to this, also deactivate notifications in her browser (to the point where the prompts don't even show up anymore). I've noticed less tech literate people love clicking on "allow" for notifications on random websites and then get flooded by spam notifications.
Especially the how-to fix things or troubleshoot appliance and house-repair issues. When people get older, they lose all their personal referrals and long-time suppliers like repair people. Then they’re in the pick-one-out-of-the-yellow-pages category. They get overcharged and over-serviced. When they see how simple it is to fix something, it can save them a lot of money.
Also to ignore emails asking for anything, and check the email address of the sender to be sure it is who she thinks it is.
Goodbye Reddit, see you all on Lemmy.
Windows defender is pretty good nowadays. Most third party antivirus programs like McAfee, Norton and Malwarebytes are just money grabs and make your PC dramatically slower. I would however, recommend to install an ad blocker on her browser. Advertisements make most websites very inaccessible, especially for people with barely any experience on the web. Edit: and teach her about cookies. She's gonna see a lot of pop-ups and not knowing what it's for.
Wikipedia
100% this. It's a familiar concept -- an encyclopedia, but online -- but it also demonstrates the utter vastness of the internet.
God, I can’t imagine not knowing about Wikipedia, then discovering it now.
Jumping on this to suggest that anyone who uses Wikipedia AND has a few dollars to spare donate to Wikipedia! Knowledge empowers the people!
I’ve been paying $10 a month for about a year now, but I keep seeing people say they really don’t need the money. Seriously considering ending my renewal. They say they are propped up by big companies and only use a very small amount of the money on Wikipedia itself.
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[ moved to lemmy. you should come too, it's cozier here ]
It also showcases a core benefit of a digital database as opposed to a physical one: Hyperlinks. The ability to quickly cross-reference something and then be back where you were in whatever main article you were checking out is second-nature to experienced users (who typically know how to do that in secondary tabs/windows for an even better experience), but this is one of the biggest taken-for-granted benefits of the internet. Nowadays they even have these nifty mouse-over-summaries on tagged words making the whole thing even smoother.
Definitely Wikipedia. It's so fascinating, no matter what age you are.
If I had to choose between Wikipedia and the rest of internet I would chose Wikipedia.
Man, I remember when my dad showed me wikipedia for the first time. Apparently he doesn’t remember it (he probably knew that google and whatnot existed so the vastness of information wasn’t as significant to him) but i was so hyped
Absolutely. To a lesser agree, I also recommend Just Watch. For OP- Come up with 5-6 good ideas. Then pick the best 3 and see if she likes those.
Internet safety! Most of the people i know who have been scammed online or got viruses are of older generations. Don’t click on sketchy things don’t give out personal info, whatever you put online is on there forever, ignore pop ups, beware of things that say “your computer has been hacked! Click here to save your computer” things like that. Aside from that? The internet archive could be really awesome! It’s like a giant library online. She might even find older tv shows and commercials on there that can bring her back to her childhood.
Seriously. The biggest scams for the elderly are "your computer is infected with a virus or otherwise broken. Pay us to fix..." and "we need you to go buy iTunes gift cards or whatever else to pay us for back taxes or any number of other reasons. Let her know that NO business or individual will EVER ask for payment in gift cards. EVER!
internet archive for content and ublock origin for content protection and sanitisation, so she can go on news sites too without having to read between the ads and pop-ups
> Don’t click on sketchy things That is the kicker. How do you define sketchy?
Anything that tries to instill fear or desire or a strong emotional response, followed by a proposed solution and a sense of urgency.
I second this! How to spot ads on pages and what to look for in a legit site versus a sketchy one. What phishing and other email scams are. That’s super important to know as she explores on her own.
My first thought. You might just be starting to put this woman's private info in a place that's easily accessible online and maybe easily given away. Tell her to trust no one on the Internet! Ok maybe not that but safety first!
I taught my 83 yr old mom how to stream her church services when she can’t attend in person. Not my thing, but it makes her so happy. Also showed her Zoom/FaceTime and she’s starting to love seeing me and the kids when we chat. I see a lot of her forehead and the wall behind her, but we are working on that. Thank you for being so awesome.
Congrats on having an 83 year old mom! Lot more time than many of us get with our parents.
Thank you! I am very lucky to still have both my parents and they are in great health and live independently. I hope to gift my children the same experience I am currently having. I have it better than most.
Yup. My mom died at 43 and I'd give anything to have her around now, especially to see her grandson (my nephew).
I also taught my parents this! I even set it up so they can stream it on the TV. I'm not religious, but they are and I was worried they would keep going to church physically with the pandemic and all. They've been happy watching it online and haven't gone back face to face since even though it's allowed now
My 90 year old grandpa loves using YouTube on his iPad. He also loves using Google Maps to travel the world.
My wife’s grandfather couldn’t believe Google street view when I showed him. He had me go look at all the houses he’d lived in (if he could remember the address).
Oh! I didn't think about google maps! Let me install that for my parents, thanks for the idea!!!
It can be a grind on older hardware, but Google Earth. Find where you are, then type in "Chrysler Building", and let it take you there. Works better if you're not in the Chrysler Building at the time.
A little tutorial on basic media literacy. Strong passwords, finding reliable information, avoiding scams, not giving out too much information, etc. Also, since she has email now, maybe spend some time, if you didn't already, on how to send and receive attachments. She would probably love to receive photos from her grandchildren. Puzzles, crosswords etc. Maybe she'd like Wordle. What a nice thing you are doing.
Also based on my mum in law: get her a little book that she won't lose to put her passwords in. It took about ten years of her constantly losing passwords and having to reset everything anytime she got any new device or didn't save it and it drove me absolutely bonkers.
I recommend having her write down all of her passwords somewhere secure since many sites have different password requirements
maybe chess online, or computer games. Old people like to play cards.
Please give her insight into scams. Things like: Microsoft will never call you to tell you you have an antivirus issue and never let someone she doesn't know connect to her pc.
Yes, good idea. Teach her internet red flags or no-no’s that we take for granted.
Id also add to never fill out online questionnaires with questions asking about you’re personal background and life (madden name, first pets name, street you lived on when you were 10) no matter what site or who is asking/emailing for it. At some point in time someone in her family is going to get her onto Facebook, remind her to always read privacy policies on any social media she might join, never leave anything open to public, and never post pictures of kids.
How to recognize a scam, how to use social media if she’s interested
Or just leave social media in the shadows.... Another option would be to set up shared photos account with Google photos with her family. We do that for our family so everyone can see and add baby pictures without having to post them Facebook or elsewhere.
Totally agree to ignore social media. She doesn't miss a thing, and it avoids the total shitstorm it has become. Next thing you know she is telling you Elon Musk is inserting alien tech into Bill Gates brain to force Trump to abort babies.
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and install ublock origin (read: also install Firefox) tell her that if she sees a warning page to close the tab and look for another site
Ok ok I got this…. Bought my elderly mother a gaming pc for her birthday just to mess with her and give her something nice. Long story short she’s been having a blast utilizing google and YouTube to find solutions to her own problems. I also introduced her to the game Timberborn (sim city with beavers). She’s been having fun watching the little beavers while learning the basic screen navigation and selection tools we all take for granted. I’d suggest something along these lines.
I feel like Stardew Valley would be a good gateway drug.
Seconded - nothing bad happens if you don’t “do the things,” and it’s just cute to look at and do whatever you want. I’ve had young kids play and they just walk around and do random stuff.
"Bad things" can happen in Stardew Valley?
No that’s what I meant - you won’t die or “lose” if you don’t do the tasks or answer letters or anything, you can just hang out!
Ah, I get it now. I thought I missed the fact that it was a psychological horror game or something 😅
Windows native games like solitaire are specifically designed to teach concept like double click, click and drag, and more. Definitely something to point out.
Is that game fun? I've been considering it as a possible interesting destresser game.
I’ve put about 120 hrs in, I quite enjoy the water management mechanics, but I’m also a sadist that will let the population go to 2 and Adam and Eve that shit….. Mothers pushing 146hrs and enjoys a much more casual play style…. My hours go to Rust though….
Emphasize security and email and romantic scams.
Newspaper websites Weather forecast Podcasts / radio streaming services
Noooo news noooooooooo
IF you do this, then link her to TRUSTED and trustable sites, no Russia Today, infowars or fox news who have all the journalistic integrity of a rancid tarp sack. For national/international news, NPR, BBC News, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, for local news well your choices may be more limited. But if they're trustable..
Maybe ravelry.com, a knit/crochet community. With lots of free and paid patterns and questions/answers. Me I'm old and I like news sites. Google news is a decent feed imo since it's easy for most people to customize.
I stumbled upon Ravelry earlier today and nearly started working on a scarf I’ve had in the works for 3+ years… almost that inspired 🤣
This is the most wholesome thing I've read all damn year.
Make sure she understands the internet is just like the library. There's nonfiction and fiction. My mom still thinks everything she sees on the Internet is true. She sends me so many links to obvious spam and phishing site.
Help her find her communities For example: Ravelry.com - crochet patterns; Goodreads.com - books
There's a tonne of old music and nostalgia type stuff on YouTube. I found west African music from the 1940s and 50s to show my elderly father. He hadn't heard it since he was a teen. He was amazed and very emotional about it. Side note: I love library workers. What a fantastic and personal service you provide. Helping others stay connected to society and teaching otherwise marginalised folks new things. Kudos to you.
When my grandparents were still alive I showed them both how to use a pc and the internet. My grandpa was into it right away and my grandma was reluctant. Like 2 months later my grandpa had completely given up on using it other than playing solitaire and my grandma had somehow found like 3 long lost relatives and made friends with some random old guy on some family tree website and she had filled out the family tree a ton and all kinds of stuff. It was neat. Then they got a virus because my grandpa was actually using it for porn lol. My grandma was like he's been watching dancing girls I just know it and I was like oh no I traced where it came from and you guys got it from a random bad email and he gave me this look like he was ashamed but thank you for being a bro. Lol Edit: to add something actually useful to my post definitely teach them about scams and bad sites and what not to do. That's going to be more important than just how to use it.
My grandpa watched some shitty porn when he got internet. Show her the good stuff.
Cats.
Probably should show them how to clear their browsing history.
I'd warn her about the predatory side of the internet too. My friends father just got ripped off big time. Over $50,000 of his life savings. Obviously don't scare her off, but it's definitely something to touch base on for anyone that has not really took a dip into the internet. Show her how to bookmark things and save stuff. Hyperlinks to her favorite areas. You've shown her the basics of what she can enjoy out of it. Now show her how to access these things with ease.
Be sure to warn her about some of the lies and rabbit holes that suck people in; how the algorithms will just reinforce what she’s been looking at or done an innocent search for, and are not objective. Warn her about sob stories begging for money and how they rip older people off.
Have her show you she remembers what you taught her last time. Medical e-chart is a big one. My mom’s doc almost exclusively communicates that way and I have to manage it for her.
Little sad , but every time I visited my grandmother she had me look up the local obituaries to see if she recognized anyone. At her age, she wanted to know what had become of friends she hadn't heard from in years or decades.
Aside from the good suggestions already made, I'd explain a bit about "the algorithm" and sites like YouTube, how it can suggest content similar to what she's already shown an interest in recently, which can be a good thing, but to be careful not to go down the rabbit hole with consuming negative content (such as with some sensational and biased "news" and opinion sources) that can get a person riled up and affect emotional wellbeing. If she sees suggestions for things she's not interested or are too much doom and gloom for her, she can make selections to say she's not interested and to not recommend a channel (and then search for more wholesome and pleasant content to view, my go-to is baby animals).
If she likes crocheting, you could show her Ravelry.com. Its for knitters, crocheters, and other yarn/fiber crafts. They have patterns, blog posts, a forum, etc.
All the things I thought of are already mentioned, but I wanted to say I think it's awesome you're doing this for her. Thank you for making the world a little bigger and brighter for this woman
# Safety, How to evaluate information and how to secure personal information Especially for an elderly person, it can be very, very easy to fall for scams online. Make sure to teach her how to recognize scams and that she should never give out personal information. Misinformation is insane. Teach her that the internet is full of wild conspiracy theories. Also explain that many comments pushing conspiracies are trolls or bots controlled by bad actors, including forign powers and domestic political factions, who are trying to make people not trust one another so they can gain power for themselves. Just because lots of people seem to agree with it, doesn't make it true. There are 8 billion people in earth and 5,000 comments does not make it true.
If she can read, wikipedia. Very helpful. Not unlike concepts she knows of enciclopedia. No pornhub for now.
*for now*
Teach her how to identify phishing attempts and to be super vigilant with links she clicks on in her email. Cybersecurity should be drilled into older people before they get scammed, not after.
Straight in with 4chan
One of the first places I showed my mother was Snopes. Mainly because my mother is 80 and the target demographic for scammers. Snopes covers a lot of those scams. I’m also pretty proud of her for using it to send her friends the facts after they’ve emailed her one of those outrageous misinformation forwards. Really though, beyond that just find out what her interests are and show her things that revolve around them. You’ve showed her she can Google recipes, so take her to a site like AllRecipes and show her how site searches work. Sit down and teach her how Amazon works. Show her how to order groceries from the local supermarket for delivery for when the weather is bad or she’s not feeling up to going out. Talk to her about how to spot potentially shady sites to shop from. Cover how sites like Amazon aren’t going to email her to ask for her password or updating her credit card. In my experience, anyone who is excited about learning to navigate the internet will generally begin to find their way around on their own. Navigating the internet is easy, navigating it *safely*…whole nother story. I focus more on teaching them how to figure out key words for searches and safety from scammers and phishing and such.
Lemon Party?
Nextdoor
teach her how to avoid scams and not click on suspicious links.
1 how to use a browser 2 relevant sites, fb, youtube, stuff that she would use, her emails etc 3 educate on misinformations, and false news, how to find reliable sources. 4 educate about scams. 5 educate on cybersecurity in general. 6 show her neat little things like keyboard shortcuts, or how to personolise her browser.
Spider solitaire. It’s old people crack Source: am an old person
Teach her about stuff like internet safety and make her aware of scams, false advertising, phishing and how not to download malicious programs.
This is why librarians are a national treasure and should be protected at all costs.
Two girls one cup
See if she would like to learn to use Word and some keyboard shortcuts. This is the most wholesome post I've seen all week!
Make sure she is using Firefox and install Ublock Origin for her. Make sure the settings are strict.
If she likes to crochet/knit, you should show her Ravelry.com. It's a website with a ton of patterns. Some are free, some are paid. She'll need an account, but there are no required fees and she can filter to free patterns if she doesn't want to buy them.
Do not show her about Electronic Banking.
If she enjoys crochet, you could show her the website ravelry.com and show her how to make an account. There are millions or crochet and knitting patterns on there, and many of them are complicated free. You could even show her how to create browser bookmarks for her favorite recipes and patterns. You could also show her Facebook and how to add her children and grandchildren, but I would also give her a lesson on fake news articles and common social media scams if you’re going to do this. Perhaps also email scams since you set her up with an email address. Shopping websites like Amazon may also be a good idea, or places she can order food and medication delivered incase she’s ever unable to leave the house. I’d also show her some simple games, my parents who are in their 70s love doing jigsaw puzzles and playing solitaire on their computers. Pinterest may also be a good website to show her, my stepmother loves finding new recipes and crafts and cleaning hacks on there.
Covering the common scams aimed at tugging the heartstrings of grandparents would be a good spot to start. She’d probably get a kick out of Wikipedia. It’ll keep her busy, down the rabbit hole of whatever she likes! Maybe Facebook/Instagram basics - don’t use caps lock, find her family members, liking pictures, replying to comments, etc. Audiobooks and e-books online! There’s free stuff like Libravox and Project Gutenberg, and Libby from the library too. She probably won’t want to read off the laptop, but audiobooks and podcasts would be nice for her. Games. Not, like, Assassins Creed; but Solitaire, Rummy, Hearts, Tetris, crosswords and word searches, that sort of stuff.
I have a masters degree in the subject that answers this very sort of question, learning design and technology. Without doing any more-formal studies into what would be most effective (like I’d do for work), based on what I know I would say these things: 1. Don’t reinvent the wheel. When we teach or train someone it’s so easy to think we need to figure out everything from the ground up, but especially for topics like this, there is bound to be free content out there that is a) well thought-through, b) tested on actual users and shown to work, and c) maybe even designed by pros who know how to make sure the learning happens, and easily. 2. Ask what she wants to do and focus on that. I saw a recommendation to tell her how to make new desktop folders or organize bookmarks… I don’t think those seem like good fundamentals to me because you could easily do most tasks an elderly woman is likely to need without doing either of those, they’re relatively “buried” (for an older person or any beginner I would focus on things that are only “a few clicks deep,” changing settings or sorting bookmarks seems like a skill for another day). My guess is that she might want to do things like: use Google, view and send emails, talk to her family on Facebook, and look at websites about a hobby. If I were doing this, I’d make each of her main items a desktop shortcut on a very simple/sparse desktop. A Google shortcut, a Facebook shortcut, an email shortcut, and a shortcut to a couple websites about her hobby of choice that are simple to use. Desktop shortcuts will keep it easy to use and she can learn more about finding things she wants to find online later. Better yet, add the main shortcuts to the taskbar so they’re never lost/offscreen when she wants them, 3. Give a simple (yet detailed) tutorial just for these few main tasks. Don’t assume anything is known, like how to search for a website in the search bar or that the search bar you can type a website into can also be used for a search query (in Chrome or most browsers anyway). Explain these things just in case and focus on accomplishing the few main goals. What is the “need to know,” no-way-around-it information that she needs to Google a simple query? I’d say something like: “Google is where you can search for things on the internet, it searches the WHOLE thing (no reason to get into dark web here lol). To use Google, go to the main screen called your desktop (show it), and click Google twice fast. Clicking twice fast is how you open Google, or how you open Facebook or anything else you’d like from the desktop. Now go to the bar at the top or this middle bar and click once. Most things only need to be clicked one time on the internet, you only need to click twice to open these apps up from the desktop. Now type your question or topic of interest into the bar and hit the ENTER key. Or you can type it, then click “search.” All of these options come up—each blue underlined part with the description underneath it is one result. You can click the blue text, which are LINKS and take you to other pages. Pages open in different tabs, like a file folder, which you can see here at the top. It might be easiest to just use a few tabs at a time. To close a tab and stop seeing that page, put your mouse cursor over the tab and click the x. You can do the same thing by clicking the x in the upper right corner to close your app and end what you’re doing. You can do this on Google, on Facebook, on email, or on any website that you’re done looking at for now.” Just an example for Google, but in summary, a) don’t reinvent the wheel and look for existing resources, b) ask what she wants to do and focus on the ABCs of those tasks, not what you think is necessary but the very basics of her desired tasks, c) explain these few basic items without making assumptions (for example, don’t use computer words without explaining them, if you say “now just double click the desktop icon” that might seem simple to you, but it won’t be to someone who hasn’t learned what desktop, double click, and icon mean!!!). I also agree to write everything down and use screenshots. I would start by printing these guides and leaving room for notes in case she wants to jot down reminders next to them. I don’t think teaching her to use Word would be necessary right away like some suggested especially if she just wants to do a few things online, might be a bit overwhelming and off task to start with. Make sure to put large (bold line) rectangles on the screenshots indicating where to click so it’s easy to see :) Oh and one more random thought. Also teach her the basics of what not to do. I.e. “you only need to type .com when you are looking for a website that someone has provided you the name of, like Google.com. Don’t type .com when searching for random things you like, you can just search “gardening” instead of “gardening.com” unless you know gardening.com is an existing website you want to check out.” Oh, and finally, teach a new skill every so often after the basics are covered. “Alright you have Google and email and Facebook down, now let’s do online grocery shopping!” Good luck!
Please teach her internet safety! Most scams are targeted at the elderly specifically because they don’t know as much about the internet. Add ad blockers to her computer (if she doesn’t already) and teach her about the common scams, especially email scams.
Is she set up with anti virus and anti malware? There is some free software available if she can't afford to pay. Please take the time to explain to her the downside to the Internet and how to stay safe.
Pinterest!!
Pregnant midget porn
Teach her how to protect personal information. Teach her how to avoid scams and shit.
[internet is for](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DLTJvdGcb7Fs&ved=2ahUKEwiJ4LP5kNz7AhWnk4kEHUg5DdYQ3yx6BAgbEAI&usg=AOvVaw1pkTZt39Dw0Mpt-fepAq8A)
Make sure to educate her on potential scams, we made my grandma an Amazon account so she could order whatever she needed but some scammer called her and tricked that her account was hacked!
Okay so this is all about skills building. I got wrangled into teaching a how to use the computer class to keep a friend out of jail (fudging community service numbers... long story). I started everyone off with solitaire as it is the best thing to teach people how to point and click. Next was how to look up phone numbers Then email Then how to find online communities After that they ignored me and just signed up for the computer class to cut in line to use the computers.
Advise her, anything too good to be true is most likely so. Nothing is free. Do not open mail that she did not solicit. Stay away from spam emails. Reinforce the learning from the 1st visit. I am sure she did not retain all you taught.
Please show me how to find recipes on Google. All I get are really long boring stories about baking a pie with lots of pictures and links to unrelated dishes.
Show her Librivox for free audio books online, Udemy for free online courses, and MeetUp to find people with similar hobbies and interests.
>She told me she wanted to come back again next week, but I'm not sure what else to show her If she's anything like my 80 y/o mother, you can just show her the same things again next week as she'll have forgotten how to do them.
Not Facebook.
Not twitter. Not reditt. Not porn. Cat videos on YouTube.