As the years go by, I’m becoming more insulted and annoyed by jokes assuming anyone over the age of 50 must be computer illiterate. I’m a couple of decades older than that now, and we got our 1st home computer, an Apple //c with no hard drive (saved files directly into 5.25” floppies), about 37 years ago. I was active online beginning about 34 years ago – anyone recall Compuserve when they charged 10¢/minute? I played Infocom’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with no graphics. I even had a RadioShack TR 80 model 100 laptop that I took to the library – no online databases or Google yet – so I could type notes and bibliographic info for my doctoral dissertation research onto it and transfer the data to my Apple //c via 2 phone lines. And I have kept up with new devices and operating systems. Okay, I may not be able to program a computer or really understand the technical details of how they work, but I can use the technology. Oh, and my 1st intro to computers was in the mid ‘60s (decade, not age) when my father hired me for the summer and taught me keypunching to update the inventory for the picture frame manufacturer he worked for. There were 3 huge machines – keypuncher, sorter, and printer – in a separate climate controlled room.
SENIOR CITIZENS CAN USE COMPUTERS
December 26, 2020
rabbi.author 
Comments on: "SENIOR CITIZENS CAN USE COMPUTERS" (2)
Just pisses me off, that! I tell you, my mother (of blessed memory) was 60 when she learned computers, and then she set up a whole system for her office. When she was in hospital after her stroke, they had to call her up and ask her how to run one of the programs (the person who called her was about 30 at the time)! My brother (of blessed memory) had one of the first Apple computers, and taught himself programming. Finally, throughout my working life, and to this day, it was always ME that people would call when they had a problem with their computers or programs.
I feel the same schoolmate! I took Fortran at BU in the mid- sixties. My first home computer was an Apple -C, also. My husband had a Trash-80. I ran, calibrated and maintained a computer controlled test system for the Navy in the 70’s and 80’s after completing a 4 year apprenticeship (civilian) as an electronics mechanic. (First woman to receive the Outstanding Apprentice Award on graduation.) Later, at the base where I now worked in employee development, I learned all the software I could so I could teach it to our workforce. After I had put in 20 years and the base closed. I carried those skills to other jobs and wrote lesson plans and taught Oakland’s transportation workforce computer (as well as management/ customer service/ organizational ) skills. Does it irk me that someone with moderate gaming skills assumes I have no computer knowledge because of my age? You betcha!