Interesting....time spent in America graphed
- Thread starter Obliviax
- Start date
Very interesting graph. Some of the "humps" - like time spent with kids- and time spent alone make complete sense.
I wonder what the line would be like if we added Social Media and/or internet usage? The high schoolers I teach claim 8+ hours per day...many studies support this type of usage. But does Social Media help connect older, lonlier folks with friends or loved ones? I'm 56 and a Ludite..but my wife has all of the accounts and apps. Maybe (just maybe) there will be a positive outcome of less "alone" time for elders as tech savvy Boomers/Busters age?
I wonder what the line would be like if we added Social Media and/or internet usage? The high schoolers I teach claim 8+ hours per day...many studies support this type of usage. But does Social Media help connect older, lonlier folks with friends or loved ones? I'm 56 and a Ludite..but my wife has all of the accounts and apps. Maybe (just maybe) there will be a positive outcome of less "alone" time for elders as tech savvy Boomers/Busters age?
that jumped out at me too. the reality is that kids get their own families and kind of go away. I like that it looks at life from a 40,000 foot view and gives you perspective.
A lot of elderly use Facebook and do FaceTime or others apps to stay in touch with kids, grandkids, and friends over the country and even the world. It has done wonders for keeping families connected.
Would be interesting to see that broken down by sex. Women are very social and thus socialize much more than men. Of course that would be difficult to do these days........
My Mom has all of the Apple phones/iPad etc and she does What's App calls every Sunday with my sisters who live in Manhattan and Namibia 🇳🇦
I'm local so I just get to hear hercomplain about whatever tech glitches happened. She had to pay people to teach her this stuff ( wouldn't let my wife help her for free...didn't want to be a burden). She lives in an amazing retirement community and I know they are recruiting their own Geek Squad of college interns to coach the elderly.
I'm 56 and much more comfortable with tech and my wife is 10 times better than me. I can only imagine that as we all age that the digital revolution should help break down some barriers.
As a teacher....kids with Cs who spend 40+ hours a week looking at asinine videos need a boot in their ass....but that's just me : )
Namibia! Pretty cool. Talk about getting a different perspective on things. Used to enjoy reading and commenting on several Mid East blogs......Iraqthefuture, EgyptianSandmonkey, one from Syria that I don’t remember the name. People from all over the world would tune in and comment. Arthur Cherenkov had good one from Afghanistan.
So with the time difference when is best connect?
She has served in the Peace Corps in Togo 🇹🇬 for 2 stints totalling 8 years and will be in Namibia for another 18 months and then is likely (finally) heading home.
She lived in both small rural communities and in the capital Lome while in Togo. She speaks French fluently but also picked up Ewe and a few other of the 31 tribal languages in that country not much larger than Massachusetts.
In Lome she lived in a gated community where she hired round the clock private guards as a precaution. However, she never experienced violence in her time there, often driving alone to the most remote parts of that country. She has a genuine love and respect for the Togolese people.
Namibia was a fallback as the university position she had been recruited to in December 2020 disappeared with Covid. She had resigned her Togolese past and was fortunate to be able to slide into a newly vacated spot on the continent.
Windhoek is infinitely more cosmopolitan than Lome, and there is a Pete Dye golf course which she enjoys. She does not have security in her current home which is in an upper end neighborhood in the city. If Covid weren't so active in that part of the world we would've tried to do a combo South Africa/Namibia trip but the potential downside was just not worth it.
Our mornings are typically her best times to talk. In Lome any time you talked for more than 30 minutes the connections would often break out or get cut off completely. There are no such issues in Namibia.
She has lead an interesting life...but we are very anxious to get her back on American soil.
So cool, what a courageous woman. Wish I had such. Would be fascinating to spend a few hours talking to her. And kudòs to your parents for raising such a child......,and you, too😉
Shame you couldn’t make the trip. Nothing like visiting a country with someone that lives there and truly knows the country.
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My grandma never met her great-grandson because of Covid lockdowns and passed in early 2020. Not sure about the whole facilities thing but it's a tough dilemma in many cases. She passed of natural aging but the September Novemberish sometime in fall 2019 Wuhan Loose Proteins certainly has wreaked a lotta havoc on down the line.
I had a friend who married a woman from Namibia (she came to the US as a foreign exchange student). She was from a well-to-do family. I think from a city. He told me that even there you have to check your bed or you might find a venomous snake in it by surprise. Not high on my list of places to visit.
I watched Shawshank redemption the other night. Key line is “you either get ready living or you get ready dying “ As a society we can’t live in fear
As a 56 year old I'm right on that cusp of Empty Nester, can see the end of my full time career within 10 years, and have enough 'youth' still in me to dream. Since my daughter died 4 years ago (natural causes/bizarre long odds/ healthy one day dead 26 hours later) I fear nothing or nobody. There isn't anything that anyone can do to harm me more. Many of the things we hold as 'important' are not essential.
I've been pleased with the compassion shown by our community, but at times we just want to runaway and have nobody know our history. We have a zillion options including some attractive 'cut and runs' but we most likely will stay where we are. Knowing that you have enough assets and marketability to make a change is more than half the battle in my mind. I love Shawshank and will watch it whenever I happen to come across it- great perspective on compounded tragedies and the ability of intelligence and grit to overcome circumstances.
In my view there is no right answer on how and when to begin living other than finding small joys in daily life. When looking back over things that's the gold.
