Connections

For those of us who are still working we may be too busy to stay in touch with friends and acquaintances and for those of us who have retired we may have lost touch with our work friends and might miss that “water-cooler” or “hallway” chat. And if we have children and grandchildren who do not live close by, we may have lost touch with them. There are ways we can reconnect with our old friends and family using our smart devices. We can use phone calls and messaging, but there’s nothing like seeing the person or people you’re speaking with. If you use a messaging app like WhatsApp or Telegram you can start a video call. If you want to meet up with several people at once those apps might work or you can use something like Skype or Zoom (just two examples). Both are free but Zoom limits you to a 40 minute meeting on the free accounts. You can immediately restart your meeting but the interruption can affect the discussion and the flow of the meeting. Some folks may not be altogether comfortable with that approach or maybe we’re just looking to find new friends or learn new things

Expanding our circle

Libraries and senior centers often offer seminars or meetups to give us the opportunity to meet new people and learn new things. The people you meet there are often like-minded folks and perhaps even folks from your neighborhood. You may even already know them. If you seek more variety in people or subject matter you may want to consider some social sites that are intended for just that purpose - to give you a chance to learn new things with people from all over the world. Of course you need to be careful to ensure that those sites are legitimate and not run by spammers or other more unsavory individuals. I know of a few and I’ll discuss two of them today.

Senior Planet

One site that I have discovered and personally frequent is SeniorPlanet.org. It’s run by AARP so is ostensibly only for seniors but I don’t think you have to prove your age and you certainly don’t need to be a member of AARP. SeniorPlanet (I’ll abbreviate that to SP from here on) has lots of regularly scheduled live online classes and discussion groups on all sorts of subjects from fitness to wellness to brain health to aging issues to technology and much more. All are hosted by a member of SP staff or a volunteer who is present to keep things organized and running smoothly. I attend several question and answer sessions on technology every week and seek to help folks with their problems with their tech. One in particular is “WACI (Windows, Android, Computers and Internet) Group” on Mondays at 2PM Pacific time. I’m not a host but I, along with several others, lend our knowledge and experience to discuss new technologies and to help answer technical questions and address problems that attendees bring to us. SP has both live and recorded sessions. I prefer the live sessions and have gotten to know folks from all over the country and even a few Europeans.

SP also has communities at https://community.seniorplanet.org/. Communities are discussion groups organized around a particular subject. You need an SP account to join a community but that is so they have some control over who is there - they can eject members who are not behaving themselves. The groups are watched over by moderators who make sure that the content is appropriate, adheres to the terms of services, and is related to the group’s focus. Neither SP nor the community share your information except with AARP and you have some control over what kinds of email you get from therm.

GetSetUp

Another site that I frequent is GetSetup.io. I co-host a live session there every Tuesday at 11AM Pacific time called “Tech Tuesday with Fred and Tony”. It’s similar to WACI on SP but we can also cover the Apple universe due to some regular attendees who are longtime users and are proficient in Apple software and devices, GetSetUp, like SP, has both live and recorded sessions but, as with SP, I prefer the live sessions. You need to register for an account at GetSetup but they don’t share your information and you have some control over what emails they send you.

Others?

Sure, there are many other sites that offer similar activities but these are the two that I’m most familiar with and can recommend without reservation. Check them out and find a few you’d like to give a try. You might even come across some that will invite you to join some smaller, more private sessions for more detailed or targeted discussions.

That’s all for this time

I hope I’ve given you some ideas about how to expand your circle of acquaintances and, if you’re retired or working remotely, how you might be able to replace that watercooler chat. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, my intent is to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, to sign up for my newsletter, or whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI!

If you like, you can read my most recent newsletter in the Hillsboro Times Gazette at https://go.ttot.link/TG-Column - I should have that link updated shortly after this edition of the newsletter appears in the online version of the newspaper.