YouTube tech guru iJustine has joined forces with DoSomething.org to show you only have to be “super-ish” to help older adults how to get wired.
Grandparents Gone Wired is a campaign aimed to having digital-savvy young folks reach out to older generations and help them learn new technology. Teach your grandmother to tweet, or your grandfather how to use Spotify. The possibilities are endless, and when you share a photo of your good deed, you’re entered to win a $10,000 scholarship. That’ll definitely make grandma and grandpa happy.
iJustine’s PSA, in cooperation with AARP and DoSomething, shows her as a technological wonder who turns typewriters into laptops and carrier pigeons into iPhones.
“I can’t imagine going one day without using the Internet to stay connected with friends and family,” said iJustine in a press release. “I love working with DoSomething.org and Mentor Up for ‘Grandparents Gone Wired’ because young people are the perfect tech teachers and using the Internet to stay in touch is second nature for them.”
According to a study from The Journal of Gerontology, the risk for depression in adults over 65 is reduced by 34 percent with Internet use, even if only 56 percent of older adults hop online currently. WIth the help of the younger generation, who live digitally, DoSomething hopes to change that, especially since a lot of the Internet is great for older adults. They’ve got a lot more to say for throwback Thursday, for one thing.
Now, once you’ve got Grandma on Twitter, you’re going to have to teach her what a #tbt is, but just think: She can’t complain about you not calling enough when she can get updates on your life minute-by-minute.
H/T Tubefilter | Photo via Alan Levine (CC BY SA 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed