The Importance of Tech Tuesday to me:
As a senior citizen, I become more conscious of our vulnerabilities as we age and I’m reassured to have resources like AARP and the Montague/Gill Senior Center in my life. A word we have all been hearing and reading about more and more is “agency” in terms of “control over actions and their consequences.”
Among our vulnerable population, we seniors are at risk in terms of our health, financial security, and falling victim to telephone scammers; which now is expanding to online scammers.
Avoiding technology is no longer tenable as a response as our culture expects us to navigate and communicate online i.e. banking, healthcare portals, streaming entertainment, and more.
How can we detect the difference between an authentic email from Medicare and a phony one? How can we keep our computers free of “phishing” expeditions, spam, and computer viruses?
Our financial security is susceptible to online con artists which forces us to acquire some basic digital literacy. Who can we trust to help us navigate this brave new world which now includes Artificial Intelligence (AI)? And with limited incomes, how can we afford to acquire honest consultations from experts in these areas of concern?
The good news is, thanks to a partnership with Franklin County Technical School and the Gill-Montague Center for the Aging (Senior Center), we senior citizens can gain some “agency” in digital literacy.
Students with specialized knowledge in social media and the Internet are able to answer questions and supply solutions (when possible) to questions we all have about how to keep our private information safe and secure, about how to best communicate over the Internet via (email? Text? Other?), how to use YouTube for instructional videos about almost anything (including the Internet), learning about streaming, about data storage, about free sites and services versus those with a fee, and the lists goes on; including “what do all these technical terms mean?”.
These students look forward to being challenged by your questions! And by the way, what a great way to build community by conversing with curious, intelligent young adults! Being a thrifty senior, I have done the math and evaluated the value versus the cost of students who are free and honest brokers. In other words they are not trying to sell us anything! I have attended many of these helpful and informative one-on-one tutorial sessions and plan to continue on as I still have many questions.
I’m hopeful that this worthwhile program continues as it has become essential for me to keep up with ever-changing technology and have fun at the same time!
Jim Cosgrove
Turners Falls, MA
12/15/2024