02-03-2018 7:25 PM
02-03-2018 7:47 PM
02-03-2018 7:47 PM
02-03-2018 10:29 PM
02-03-2018 10:33 PM
Well now, I've posted a similar thread several times so I though I'd wait and see how you got on?
It's life Jim, but not as WE know it.
Live long and prosper.
03-03-2018 6:54 AM
03-03-2018 8:02 AM
It's strange isn't it? Thinking back to Christmas, the local TV news did a piece on how lonely some elderly people were and how if they didn't have carers visiting they wouldn't speak to anyone for days. Yet one of my customers (a regular church-goer) put her name down for an "Extra Chair" scheme -- no takers.
My mother lives in sheltered accommodation and some of the more active have tried to get (or keep) various activities going, with little success. Coffee Mornings are down to half-a-dozen, Fishy Fridays -- three or four. The manager was supportive when I suggested having a lunch time drop-in, she printed and delivered notes to every resident to let them know we would be in the communal lounge and anyone was welcome to join us with a sandwich to watch the lunch-time news together. Not a single person came for over a week, so we gave up.
Even Age UK has stopped its weekly visits as there were more volunteers than visitors.
I can't remember if it was on this board that I bemoaned my local pub that only a few years ago was lively at weekends with working people, their friends and families catching up and relaxing together, but was now almost deserted. How I watched a group of regulars come in (all on their mobiles), put money on the bar, collect their pints and retreat to a table without a word to me, the bar-maid or each other. Where they sat drinking in silence, still on their phones.
I feel my world has shrunk since I have become my mother's carer. Between doing two jobs and spending more time with her I have little time for much else. I don't use FB or Twitter but "talk" to friends often via email and find they are in the same position, little time to do anything except fire off emails instead of getting together physically.
I can't help thinking that it's probably a devious plot to destroy cohesion and limit interaction between people. Encouraging everyone to become more solitary and fill the gap with whatever appears on the screens in front of their faces where they can be constantly bombarded with adverts and propaganda.
03-03-2018 10:06 AM
03-03-2018 10:57 AM
I think with the elderly it is really to do with their physical abilities or lack of xx
Many want to take up the offer and invitations by it is very much like hard work to get ready, they probably even forget about an event till it's too late.
My hubby is a good example of that, I'm his carer he being a lot older than me and suffers a variety of medical conditions where it is hard to do just even the simplest of things like dress and prepare a meal, it makes him not want to try. I'm the one that is more the lonely one, and im the one more capable physically (id say mentally too but some would say thats debatable) lol.
It has a lot to do with confidence and fealing safe and secure too.
03-03-2018 1:15 PM - edited 03-03-2018 1:17 PM
So called social media is destroying the UK,
it has turned the country into a tribe of boring selfie obsessed berks.
You really can be alone in a crowd now when everyone has their head bowed and their faces bathed in a soft blue flickering phone light,
like they see it as the face of god, whilst simultaneously being oblivious to supposed loved ones right next to them.
A sad state of affairs.
03-03-2018 2:05 PM
03-03-2018 2:48 PM
Criticise football as much as you like but when at a match and your team scores you most certainly aren’t alone!
When you lose there is always plenty to discuss with strangers because 9 times out of 10 it has to be the refs fault.
Age, ability, IQ, colour nor religion comes into it - everyone has an opinion and isn’t afraid to share it.
One of the few places where nobody is left out.
03-03-2018 3:15 PM
And one place I would prefer to be left out.
03-03-2018 3:25 PM
You’ll never know unless you try it - when was the last time you went to a match?
03-03-2018 3:54 PM
Never, not my thing.
Lived very near a ground though.
03-03-2018 4:00 PM
Mothers don't interact with babies in prams now, they look at their phones while pushing them, a large portion of the time into the road with the buggy in front of them.
03-03-2018 4:04 PM
Also, no end of people walking dogs are taking no notice of what the dog's doing, even when they're on a lead. Yak-yak-yak on their phone.....
It's life Jim, but not as WE know it.
Live long and prosper.
03-03-2018 4:36 PM - edited 03-03-2018 4:38 PM
If I want to know how to do something on my pc or mobile phone, who can I turn too ........... My grandchildren lol xxx
And they soon moan when I say, right we're taking the dogs for a nice long walk round the lake. 😒
04-03-2018 2:17 AM
04-03-2018 2:29 AM - edited 04-03-2018 2:30 AM
I will talk to anyone who will talk to me, even though I'm really pretty much a loner. I hate mobile phones and don't have one. They make us communicate easier and quicker, but in my opinion not better.
I was at Manchester airport last year and this big guy sat down besides me. He got his phone out and was doing what most people were doing in the waiting area. Scrolling through stuff and looking at his screen.
A woman came past who was doing a survey about the service at the airport. I was honest and said no thanks I'm actually too tired to bother, I'm really sorry. Then she asked him and he said his English wasn't very good. The woman walked on, but I said with a laugh "Liar".
He was Dutch and I had heard him speaking English before. He looked at me and burst out laughing himself. He obviously appreciated my cheek, especially as it was the truth. Some guy went past with a cowboy hat on and he said that it was one of the Dooby brothers and that was probably why our flight was delayed. I said I had never heard of them so he said look it up on your phone. I haven't got one I said, which he thought was weird, so he looked it up on his and showed me.
All this then sparked off a conversation and soon we sat there laughing, having a banter and exchanging stories about our families etc...Then it was time to board the plane and he said, “it was really nice talking to you” and I said....”and that would never have happened if I would have been looking at my mobile phone”.........