Ideas 2 Steal

theatlantic:

Finally, a Google for Grandma

Internet usage, studies have suggested, can improve older people’s mental and emotional wellbeing. And yet, for many seniors, the shiny machines sitting on their kids’ or grandkids’ desks (or in their hands, or on their laps) are just that — machines, foreign and cold. Nearly 80% of all Americans, Pew says — and nearly 80% of all baby boomers — use the Internet; only 42% of seniors do.

The digital divide, in other words, has a corollary: the generational divide. […]

So it’s both ironic and fitting that the young company that made its name simplifying the web is now trying to bring that simplicity to the web’s oldest users. In a pilot program at its Dublin offices, Google has rolled out classes that pair up older people with (generally, much younger) Googlers, providing instruction on everything from email-sending to photo-uploading to searching for information to, in general, navigating a not-always-intuitive Internet.

Read more. [Image: Cambridge Community Television]

My friend Connie Schultz wrote an amazing piece looking back at her life through five pictures of herself across the last 50 years. What does your face say about the life you have led and the choices you have made?

Terrific project that PRI is helping lead with partners Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. See your state’s report card. We make it easy to email it to your state officials and ask what they plan to do to reduce the risk of corruption in state government.