Websites For Senior Citizens
What's On Offer?
In my quest to find out what is on offer, online, for Senior Citizens I was very disappointed to find Not A Lot.
Even with phrases like "Silver Surfer", "50 Plus" and "Elder Geek" around, to make the younger generation feel that their elders are still hip
("chilling with the kids!"), it is a struggle to find a website that does not stereotype the senior citizen as a Bingo Player who, when not in need of
Health Care, needs Government Advice about their pension.
There does not seem to be a single website dedicated to the Activities and Fun Side of being 50 Plus for example.
Good Content - Poor Design - No Direction
Most of the Senior Citizen websites I visited looked depressing from the start and were bland and boring thereafter, mainly due to lack of definition and
direction. They were designed with no colour scheme, unclear navigation, no feel-good/uplifting factor and no definition of who they are catering for for
example.
I know a lot of these websites are run by volunteer senior citizens whose committees/organizations probably cannot afford a website designer/programmer,
and can therefore be forgiven for poor quality design, but for those that can afford (usually because they are running/selling computer courses and/or
products) really have no excuse for their poor quality design.
Disappointing, Stereotyped, "Old-Person" Content
Imagine you have just reached retirement age, have worked most of your life, perhaps have never had the time and/or money to do anything exciting (because
you were working all the time) and now want to explore the Senior Citizens side of the internet to see what it and life have to offer. You may disappointed
to find yourself saying "I thought they said the internet was supposed to be Fun?!!!".
This disappointment will mainly be due to finding senior citizen websites that only have content to do with senior citizen stereotypes such as Pension,
Health Care, Government Help and so on. I could not find a website that had group Yahoo Messenger sessions for example, even just for practise purposes.
On The Worldwide Web But Still A Local Community
It seems you have to go to individual websites that cater for your hobby/vice. In other words. Many of these so called Senior Citizen websites are not entertaining, or engaging with, the senior citizen outside of their own community - They tend to cater only for local people and their local issues without adding News, Hobbies, Recipes, Etc that could be utilised by a worldwide Senior Citizens community. They are on the worldwide web after all.
Websites That A Senior Citizen Should Consider Viewing
Anyway! It's not all doom and gloom. Around this webpage, and around this website, I have rounded up some websites that I think, you as a Senior Citizen, should visit at least once in order to get an allround flavour of the internet and its senior citizen communities. This may mean becoming "trendy" so please take caution! (Oops! I do believe I just stereotyped you there!).
The SILVER SURFERS Website
Out of all the websites I have looked at so far on the internet Silver Surfers (heading: Activities And Hobbies) seems to be the closest there is to a
Website For Senior Citizens, but only in terms of linked activities.....which is what it is really, a website of linked activities.
The links could of been better layed out and more navigational, especially for those who have never used a computer before, but saying this Silver Surfers
has done very well in building a website that looks at the Activities and Fun Side of being a senior citizen on the internet.
The Rest Of The Internet
As well as the linked resources on this web page the internet offers far more, of course, with such things as:
Online Groups. Online Groups such as Yahoo Groups are basically communities on the
internet whereby you talk about things of interest, your likes/dislikes, get help, help others (via a forum) and so on. So if you search it for
"Senior Citizens" you will find communities related to Senior Citizen topics. Therefore, you could also search it for communities related to your hobby
for example.
Amazon Bookstore. Amazon.com is one of the, if not the, biggest bookstore online.
With thousands of reasonably priced books, and many topics, to choose from you should be able to find a good book to read when offline. They also sell
computer gadgets.
Friendships / Relationships. Match.com is a recognized (TV Advertised) online dating
service that caters for the 50 Plus as well as younger people. So if you are looking for a new Friendship and/or Relationship I would try this website
first. Always look for websites that come to the top of Google, or that have a Sponsored Link, with regards to the trustworthiness.
Other websites of interest may be Sky News,
YouTube and
International TV Online for example.
At the end of the day there is something for everyone on the internet. One of the key ingredients to enjoying it is to have a hobby/vice in the first
place. With no hobby/vice you may find the internet boring, so go exploring!!