Wake Up Seniors! Computer Illiteracy is Not a Badge of Honor

First, let me tell you that I'm 65-years-old. The relevancy will emerge momentarily. I am also a high school dropout, from the 10th grade back during the late 1950s. I'll tell you later why that's important.

So far today, since about 4am when I got up and walked about 20 steps to my front room office of my Home Based Business, sat at my laptop and started working, I've been on the computer for about six consecutive hours. Let me share what I've done:

I wrote a Marketing & Public Relations Strategic Plan and emailed copies to five leaders at a local (Durham, NC) private Christian Academy with whom I will sign a new contract later today. I wrote and launched a Permission Email Marketing campaign for a new prospect, a locally based ministry that does a lot of work in Haiti. I met with some of their board members Thursday evening and this campaign in a followup. I walked another prospect through an online presentation and received a tentative agreement for she and her daughter to launch a new Home Based Business Operation (HBBO) when we meet next week. The mother and daughter will be partners in this new venture, and I will be their trainer and coach. I made reservations on AmTrak to attend a Church conference in Greensboro (NC), during the third week in May, and made hotel reservations at the same time. Then because something about May 21 (my second day at the Greensboro conference) jogged my memory, I clicked over to my account at the DukeHealth Center (an online portal) and saw that I was scheduled to see my cardiologist on the afternoon of May 21st. I also had an appointment at 11am today with one of the clinics at the same hospital. Online, I rescheduled both appointments. Then I contacted my Email Marketing Agency representative with one of my national businesss partners because I just signed an agency contract to market email marketing suites to new clients.

Well, as you can ascertain, I am completely computer competent.

I contend, further that those of us who qualify for senior citizens' discounts, such as free local bus rides, etc., cannot afford to say with glee: "I don't know nothing about them computers. My grandchildren know a lot, but all I can do is play Solitaire. Wake up my pre-Baby Boomer cohorts, computers, online technology, E-commerce in all of its facets are here to stay and will become evermore significant in our lives. We simply cannot afford to cling to the past. The 20th century is gone! I lived 58 years in that century, but it's gone and I don't miss it. Even if I missed the so-called "good old days," I cannot return to them. Like you, I am two years shy of my initial decade in the 21st century. I must adapt or become irrelevant. I refuse to become irrelevant. You should, too!

Stop fearing technology. Consider, if you dare, a simple definition I use to help me understand computers, the Internet, Myspace, YouTube, etc. Technology is a process, a technique or a product that transforms something into a resource. For example, fish, swimming freely in a stream, are not food until someone develops an efficient technology for catching them. Consider three possibilities,. We could try hitting the fish with large rocks, but refraction skews our aim. Harpooning them poses a similar problem. Snorkling to catch fish in their own environment also proves to be inefficient. Well, what about a properly baited, weight-tested line and pole? Suddenly, I have the technology I need to transform fish into food. Now, what if I use a net? Will my fishing become more time and cost efficient? I think so!

So what about this computer technology, the stuff we senior citizens claim to not know, and to not want to know, anything about? Computers, the Internet and all associated tools and devices are merely instruments that transform global information into a useful and appllicable resource. You see, I was thinking about this as I worked this morning, and because I am a Content Producer with AC, I flipped over here, wrote this article, posted it, and now I'm just waiting to get paid.

When I finish here, I will head back to my WebBuilder PLUS program and develop the three websites I marketed yesterday. I will put content on the site I built for a politician friend of mine who is campaigning for the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I will break for lunch about 2pm today, and get back to work about 3pm. I will develop a Permission-based Email Marketing campaign for one of the wellness companies I just contracted with.

Yes, just to relax, I might also play a hand or two of Solitaire, and even Spades Online. Later this afternoon, I will go walking, and then ride the bus to the downtown Senior Citizens Center in Durham (NC), where about a dozen of my contemporaries have been playing dominoes most of the day, downstairs while the upstairs computer lab gets almost no attention.

Wake up! It's time to learn to use, like, even admire computers and all attendant technologies! You can continue to be relevant, to share the value of your years of talent, experiences, skills and time with others, and maybe even get paid to do that.

Now you know why my being 65-years-old was an important first fact for you to know. I am one of you! I master computers, the Internet, etc. So can you! I dropped out of school in the 10th grade, so you don't need diplomas and degress to master this technology. You just have to wake up and recognize that it's here to stay. You can do it! It's the only way to remain relevant!

See you at the top!