Geezer Squad Tackles iPads, Tablets and YouTube
You could say I founded the “Geezer Squad” here at Lenbrook. When my wife and I moved here about six plus years ago, and being the “computer geek with no formal training” that I am, I quickly rounded up a handful of fellow geeks to be “on call” to assist residents with their computers.
Mostly we help with email, downloading photos of the grandchildren, sending documents and photos to family and the like. We keep a log and — average 12 house calls a month.
At first, we worked almost entirely on residents’ personal computers — Macs and Windows machines. More often now, though, we’re more likely to be helping someone set up and use their new “device.” By device, I mean an iPad or smart phone or some sort of tablet or ereader. They are a popular gift from the “grown kids” and we’re seeing residents using them in the lobby and in our restaurants.
Everyone is also finding out that looking something up on the Internet is faster and easier on a tablet. Showing pictures of your grand and great grand kids anywhere at any time is a lot easier with an iPad or tablet. Sending or checking email is faster and easier on a tablet. Lenbrook’s entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled.
The fact is you can do most anything you want to do on a tablet or iPad — and you can find out how to do just about anything you want on a YouTube video. I know because I just learned how to operate an immaculate, 60-year-old German sewing machine by finding a YouTube video on my tablet.
A resident recently donated his mother’s personal sewing machine to one of Lenbrook’s sewing and craft studios, but she didn’t have the operating manual for that specific machine. So they called me. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a Google search to see what I could find out about it.
Sure enough, some gentleman had taken the time to create and post a 20-minute video on how to operate that very machine. Who would have thought you could learn the intricate operation of a 60-year-old sewing machine on a YouTube video? I didn’t expect to find that on the Internet, but I did.
Another example came about when we were having lunch with my daughter and grandson. We started singing that old children’s song about a meatball falling off the table. We couldn’t remember all the words so my grandson got on his iPhone and found the lyrics in less than a minute.
Now, that brings me to another question: Is knowing how to find stuff on the Internet the same as knowing stuff? That’s a larger question, but let’s leave that for another day and another blog post.
Jim Cochrane is an electrical engineer from Georgia Tech and New York University and a self-proclaimed computer geek. He was among the earliest users of the first Internet service provider Prodigy and an early subscriber to AOL email. He retired from a 40+ year career in telecommunications and information management with Bell Laboratories and Scientific Atlanta. He and his wife “Bear” have been residents at Lenbrook since 2008.