Ivy Bean is 104 years old and ‘twitters’ from her UK nursing home (using @ivybean104). She uses the latest technology to stay in touch with the outside world. Bean told the Guardian newspaper that her cyber-friends have been a lifeline to her in her loneliness. Susan Daly looks at how new technologies help people who are isolated to reconnect

Of all the concerns pressing on older people in Ireland at the moment, communication – or the lack of it – is a major issue. The shutting of small, rural post offices and the discontinuation of some public transport routes has put many at a geographical and social remove from others.

An issue with a less obvious impact is the delay in the rollout of broadband services across the country. However, that delay means that people living in areas without internet access are missing out on a whole world of communication.

Ivy Bean is not alone in expanding her horizons via the worldwide web. A 95-year-old Tyrone lady became Ireland’s Silver Surfer of the Year in September after mastering the online phonecall website Skype, which allows her to speak to her seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren via webcam. Other finalists in the competition included a 75-year-old man who uses music-editing software to record his own music and an 87-year-old woman who taught herself to use a computer and surfs the net every day.

Keeping close while far away
Social networking sites – such as Facebook, which allows you to see pictures of your friends and family, or Twitter, which lets you send instant messages to your friends – are clearly of value to those who might otherwise be isolated by distance from their loved ones.

However, even the action of searching for something on the internet has been proven to sharpen the mind in much the same manner as completing crosswords or Soduko puzzles boost brainpower. The research, published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, found a twofold increase in “higher” brain activity among those who used the internet regularly compared with those who had little or no experience surfing the internet.

Silver surfers
It appears that Irish ‘silver surfers’ are getting particularly comfortable with broadening their use of the web beyond simply opening an email account. Last year, research company iReach found that, while only 21 per cent of Irish adult internet users are older than 50, they spend the highest average amount across a whole range of internet services areas. They were particularly active in booking holidays on travel websites and 70 per cent of the over-50s surveyed said they shopped on the internet very regularly.

“The internet can be an effective means of delivering access to vital services and information about health, hobbies and employment, as well as helping older people keep in touch with friends and family and access vital public services,” says iReach managing director Oisín Byrne.

Internet banking and online tax returns also attract a high proportion of over-50 users – which puts paid to that old cliché about keeping money under the mattress. It is all the more impressive considering the nervousness most of us, at any age, have about performing ‘invisible’ transactions over the internet.

Vigilance
There is always a need for vigilance regarding internet fraudsters but savvy surfers know not to put too much personal information – such as phone numbers, address or date of birth – on social networking sites or to ever hand over bank details in an email.

The general rule is to only put on the internet the information that you would be happy to have inscribed on a public park bench. (Not much when you think about it, is it?)

New lease of life
On the whole, an ability to tap into this user-friendly technology can provide a new lease of life. Age Action Ireland has recognised the importance of giving absolute beginners the confidence to get online by establishing a Getting Started computer programme. Another scheme, called Log on, Learn, gets transition-year students involved in helping elderly neighbours to get to grips with a keyboard. It seems it’s never too late to get switched on.

Useful websites

www.ageaction.ie/getting-started.htm – for information on Age Action’s Getting Started programme
www.facebook.com – a social networking site with privacy settings that can be used to allow only designated friends to look at your photographs and comments
www.skype.com – set up an account for free and you can call any other Skype account holder for free via your computers