A few months ago I was visiting my grandmother in the nursing home where she now lives following an accident that left her unable to care for herself. Up until a couple of years ago she lived in a northern Ontario city by herself, alone in a big house ever since my grandfather died several years previous. She'd hire neighbours and odd jobbers to take care of her lawn and shovel snow from the driveway. And one day that all changed and she was never able to care for herself the same again.
As you can imagine, it's always an emotional experience to visit her and I feel endless guilt when it comes time to leave. She has nothing to do. Her life revolves around looking forward to the next visit from a family member and between those moments are spent gazing out the window. Day in, day out; it's enough to make one crazy. She doesn't enjoy group activities but prefers one on one conversations. Sadly, there is not a lot of that available where she lives.
I was trying to think of activities she could do to pass the time when no one is around but all I could think of was how awesome it would be if we could just set her up on a computer and she could reconnect with other aging friends who are still around and maybe even play some games. She'd have access to everything.
And it was then that I realized that when I'm old, I WILL know how to use computers, and I will be connected to people I know. My generation and all the ones after it are extremely good at being alone but not bored or lonely thanks to technology. We are resourceful and know how to access anything we want in under 10 seconds. By the time we are geriatrics we will probably be able to control computers using our mind only and thus won't be prohibited due to physical restrictions.
Worried about not having children to take care of you when you are old? Not necessary. With any luck you'll be so involved being young again playing Second Life you won't have any time for visitors anyways.
