But there are some older people who have taken to it like a duck to water. I always thought my now-deceased f-i-l would have got some enjoyment from it - learning more about his hobbies (mainly bowls), and keeping in touch with distant friends and family. But he'd decided it wasn't for him.
(His aversion may have been brought about by me, as once when the internet was in it's relative infancy I asked him what he wanted me to search for, and whatever it was resulted in a mass of hits of fairly explicit images.)
Interesting point Crankcase - I too work in IT and spend a lot of my working and non-working day in front of a computer, but I often muse whether I could now live without the internet. For sure, there is a lot I do which would not be essential. And I'd really like it to fit better alongside other activities. I still use a desktop computer (mainly cos I like/need the fancy graphics card and 24" screen) but SWMBO sits in front of the telly with her laptop on, just dipping into Facebook or whatever when the TV has nothing of interest. In it's way, it's much more social doing it that way (but it irritates me when she is Facebooking and misses a visual event on TV so we have to rewind)
There is a lot more convergence to be had. Phones have been theoretically capable of much more for years (e.g. better storage for music playing) but that has only recently come about, which I'm sure is the manufacturers holding back "features" to milk the market as many times as they can. PVRs are now becoming common, and if you look at the V+ box that is bringing streaming TV (Catch Up) and movies, so could easily provide a "family" internet capability.
Home automation is still only scratching the surface. There has been slow take up of remote control of other appliances (lights, heating etc) even though the technology has been around for years. When I was doing my bathroom a couple of years ago, I could have had a bath which was internet connected - if you were out and wanted a bath when you got back, you logged on to your bath, told it what time you wanted to use it, how deep and how warm and it would be ready for you at the requested time.
Tthere is software to scan items used from your fridge/larder which can form the basis of next week's internet shopping order. Mobile phones can be used to scan barcodes in shops for an instant comparison of whether the item is the best price. The list of possibilities is endless.
I've forgotten the question now, so will stop there!
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 26 Feb 10 at 10:55
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