iPad for Seniors - YES!

By I.J. Hudson

Sharing ideas about how we live our lives has been around as long as we’ve been around.  Cave walls display figures for us to interpret.  They weren’t drawn for us, but the human race just happened to last long enough to stumble upon those walls to examine the distant past.  

In Internet terms, the distant past isn’t so distant – in years.  

The key to sharing information has always been the interface.  Remember when card catalogs were the only interface to find books in a physical library?  

Interfaces we've managed to survive

Each layer between that information and making it available to see/read/hear has always slowed the process because there’s translation going on.  Pencil – pen – keyboard –mouse – stylus --

Some may remember DOS, Windows for Workgroups 3.1.1 and when we first began our march to build a better mouse.  That is ancient, but it certainly beat paper and pencil for calculations. Then we began showing up at meetings with a “Palm Pilot,” and started a love-hate relationship with graffiti.  And, of course, it gave us another reason not to pay attention in meetings.

Okay, I.J., where are you going with this?

Suppose you weren’t interested in the Internet as it progressed and didn’t live through all of those interface evolutions?  Suppose you thought GUI (Graphical User Interface) really meant gooey?  Suppose you’re 85 and considering your first computer?  That could be a daunting task if you had to deal with the usual ways of extracting information. 

My father-in-law is about to enter the world of iPad and I think that’s a good thing.  He’s always been an inquisitive fellow who enjoys history, wildlife and ideas.  The iPad will make it easy for him to do what he wants to do – and the only interfaces he will need are connected to his wrists.  A door partially locked by keyboards, mice and complications will be opened.  

And while he won’t have a USB port or other “necessities” required by others, he will be able to tap into the basic information he wants, whether websites, pictures or email.  

If you focus on needs and goals, I think the match up is perfect.  He’s coming to the Internet at a decent time – when the interface wasn’t always in the way….

The only issue to settle now is whether to go for the newest iPad with the cameras, so he can see and be seen by the great-grandkids, or take the older iPad for a discount???