"WHY?"

The WHY behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid is simple - freedom & choice.  Witha friendly person keyboarding at their every whim, an oldster elder or ancient once again holds the reins.

The impact isn't theoretical for me - experienced it 1st hand with my case study of one:  Mom.  At 85, a major medical crisis transformed her health from fairly robust to relatively frail.  Although she still got out more than most of her friends, putting even ones in their 70s to shame, she was definitely slower, more cautious & less likely to want to head out in icky weather.  For the first time, Mom found herself increasingly home bound.

Around this same time, a lively discussion in our church that engaged Mom's attention moved onto the internet.  Mom was hooked.  Although she hesitated to get her own e-mail address, she was an enthusiastic participant, writing under my address, using my tip-tapping skills to share her thoughts & experiences.

Would she have ever ventured out into cyber space without such a compelling spur?   I doubt it.  But once out there, she was a passionate participant.  But still under my address.  Until...

Until a sensitive situation with someone she loved spurred her to get her very own address.  I still keyboarded, but getting that separate address seemed to give Mom a fuller-throated voice, both online & in real life.  

Mom (always a great letter writer) took to social networking like a duck to water, using e-mails to share with an ever-expanding dist list stories, thoughts, small moments & big-hearted memories.  

In a way, Mom was blogging before blogging was cool!

Doing that took courage, guts & grit, because my older sibs each made it clear they did NOT like this Mom 2.0.  Her vignettes & musings weren't intimate or intrusively personal, but they were from a mother my sibs did not recognize & showed had no interest in getting to know. Yet, still she persisted.  

It's easy to feel shocked at my older sibs' resistance, but put yourself in their shoes.  

First off, they were all in their teens in the '50s, with an Eisenhower-era view of mothers being there for their family, not the reverse.  For ALL of their lives, Mom's only thought had been what they wanted, never what she needed. Just expressing her unique voice was experienced by them as a threat.  They asked her to stop; when she didn't, they distanced themselves from her life.  

And still she persisted.

Cyber Access for the Technically Timid is important because it opens new doors.  Mom went through ones that helped her become more the person she was when my father - her O Best Beloved - was alive. That was her experience; other people will have different doors opening, taking them in their own new directions.  It could be as simple as surfing the internet for fun places, listening to podcasts or TED talks, or shopping for a too-far-away grandchild's sixth birthday.  They may want to get in face time with far distant friends or even start their own blog! They could just want to e-mail an ever growing dist list.  It's up to them.

Choice & freedom:  the all-important, all-empowering WHY behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid.