I just came back from the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco the other day. While waiting for my turn I had a chance to converse with a number of Filipino-Americans Seniors about the Internet. There were ten seniors in the waiting room. About half of them have companions helping them with the paper work regarding renewal of visa, special power of attorneys and dual citizenships applications.
One of the senior citizen has no paper work ready and was asking me where I got my forms. I told her I downloaded it from the consulate website. Another senior in our group commented, So you are one of those rare seniors who uses the Internet ? Here's a sample of our conversation:
Me: I used the Internet not only for Face Book( social media) but I also do on-line banking and shopping. I also watch movies on line do a lot of blogging.
Senior Citizen 1: What is blogging?
Me: I have seven sites for personal blogging (writing articles) on any subject except sex, religion and politics.
Senior Citizen 2: When my grandson visit me once a month, he shows me pictures of our relatives in the Philippines in Facebook.
Senior Citizen 1: When do you have time to do your blogging?
Me: Being the primary care giver for my wife who is on a wheel chair and has Parkinson, my time for blogging is only from 9 to 1PM Monday to Friday, when Home Care Aides that I hired from two private agencies come to the house to take care of my wife. Also on Saturday and Sunday, another Aide ( personal friend of my son) comes to the house from 9 to 5PM. Our conversations ended when my number was called.
The above conversation aroused my interest, so I went to the Internet and found the following information about Use of Internet by Senior Americans.
More than 1/3 of Americans aged 65 or older do not used the Internet.
The top 5 reasons why they are not Internet users are
1. Just not interested (21%)
2. Do not own a Computer(13%)
3. Too Frustrating(10%)
4. Too old to learn (8%)
5. Lack of skills(8%)
For details visit the following site: https://thehustle.co/meet-the-11-of-americans-who-dont-use-the-internet/ll
Note: Anyone know about Senior Internet Users in the Philippines? My educated guess is probably less than 1%.
http://newsbytes.ph/2018/01/30/ph-now-has-67-million-internet-users-all-active-on-social-media/
The above article discuss the number of Internet users in the Philippines, but did not discuss age groups participation. Majority of Internet users in the Philippines are for Social Media Interaction.
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