[ramboself]

I just wonder about those who's illness started before the digital revolution, how did they catch up given that 1 to 1 tuition is expensive and classses are hard due to social anxiety

I've got friends my age who can't handle digital, i struggle with the more advanced things

Remember my first try at the internet was at some library then when i got 2 yrs backdated dla i went straight from the tribunal in tottenham court road to a computer store they thought i'd stolen the bank card and contacted the bank, then a friend gave me the adress of a wsebsite to teach the internet, i remember they offered a cirtificate to NVQ level 3 when i contacted this day centre they offered to teach me computing to NVQ level 2 they also said they offered real work "But you had to be referrred by social services"

[Universal Credit]

Some people just won't learn - others are lifelong learners. A computer is designed to be user friendly, there are idiots guides to these things for a tenner, it isn't like they are learning MathCad or something advanced? It isn't to do with age either, there's a lot more silver surfers than the younger ones.

[mias]

I never think of you as 'elderly' Rambo.

[Deleted Member]

age does,nt come into when im on here,im no spring chicken and only been online about a year,nearest i ever got to a computer woz a zx-81 or commodore thingy me jig ,still dont know wot im doin half the time

[ramboself]

I wasn't so much talking about age i was talking about those schitzoprenics who's illnes started at 19 before the digital revolution who have problems handleing the large classes IT is taught in and can't afford personal tuition

[Universal Credit]

Some people don't want to learn anything new. I don't think this is uniue to Sz....half the population has a IQ below a hundred and half have a mathematical grasp below that of a primary school kid. These are not going to change because you put a keyboard in front of them and spend a lot of money teaching them how to write a basic email. Some people are plain dumb and they will remain that way even if you put them in suit and give them a smart office. This is not peculiar to mental health. A disrupted education can be overcome with a bit of ingenuity, some time thinking and/or reading, like any hurdle but if you are hardwired to carry a vacuum around in place of a thinking mind that's how it'll be, regardless...

[Admin - Rethink]

Does the design of my mug look familiar to anyone? I remember when 48k was big and 128k was *huge*.

[Deleted Member]

Chris - Rethink, on 08 March 2012 - 02:41 PM, said:

speccymug.jpg

Does the design of my mug look familiar to anyone? I remember when 48k was big and 128k was *huge*.

wots 128k ? your wages !

[ramboself]

I remember the 5 1/4 floppy disks, i think they were 128k, that old amstrad my brother picked up from a skip at work wordperfect

I also remember all those lectures about how i should avoid stress, now i'm just left in the ****

Got my computer diary from those years been transferred between computers, a letter a week to friends, that play krapps last stand comes to mind, was it dylan thomas

[CeeBee]

crick, on 08 March 2012 - 11:21 AM, said:

age does,nt come into when im on here,im no spring chicken and only been online about a year,nearest i ever got to a computer woz a zx-81 or commodore thingy me jig ,still dont know wot im doin half the time

I think the Commodore you are referring to was the Commodore 64. I spent hours copying lines of programming into ours as a kid. It essentially worked the same as the Spectrum, which was more popular among my friends and which looked like Chris's mug.

Although I am not elderly, we had very little formal IT teaching at school. What they did teach us was usually as an afterthought and so basic that I knew it anyway. However, in my case I did spend every lunch hour in the IT suite as I got on better with machines than with teenage girls. I think if I had pursued things a little more vigorously, rather than wasting so many hours on Minesweeper, I might have taught myself something useful and carved out a career for myself in that direction.

As it is my self-taught skills are adequate for most office jobs and basic internet operation, but woefully lacking in other areas. For anything I don't know there's always Google.

[ramboself]

a no of my schitzoprenic friends can't use the internet some have trouble with basic digital technology

I think some new labour advisor said poverty was the people who've never learned digital technology, convenient because it allowed new labout to ignore it's failure to tackle poverty by redefining it

[toffee]

In London at least there are quite a lot of voluntary organisations that will provide free 'computing mentors' to old people. I know this because my sister was one. I also think that in some ways the older generation has an advantage over the younger generation as there is a huge shortage of people in the new generation who understand programming and stuff like that as opposed to the software packages. My friend has been trying to recruit for It people and he says all the new graduates are clueless and his big company panicking because in 5-10 years all their skilled programmers are going to retire.

You can also get fairly reasonably priced training programmes on Groupon

I think you just need to stop giving into learned helplessness rambo.

[toffee]

ps I didn't get any computer training beyond win turtle at school and I am 'only' 30. I did an ECDL Extra (level 2) at a local college in 2004. I did it as an intensive 4 week summer course 3 weeks after my 6 month detention in hospital - so it is doable even if you are psychotically ill. Back then it was free cos I was on benefits. Now you would get reduced price if you are on benefits. If you are in London why not try city lit they are very good and if you are on low income will pay your travel costs, course materials and subsidised places but if you are afraid of class sizes try the other options I suggested. I would also be happy to email you some course material for windows 2007 although obviously you would not get a qualification for that.

[manic666]

being mentally ill is no reason not to use a computer, but some websites like a lot of mental health sites, dont no SFA about how our minds work. phyco babble is one such site, you have that many rules an be cival clause,s its nigh on impossible not to get blocked an banned. The site is run by a shrink so you would thinking he would no a mentally ill poster is not always feeling there best an let off steam at times. . A good site reconises this an lets it go ,if not insulting people personally. The poster may have a hole bunch of friends that plead for his case but the shrink still ban,s the said poster. Mabye makeing him or her more unstable an ill , the shrink banned people for a week or even a year like school children. Needlesss to say i was banned for life, for defending a fellow posters mental state . mabye telling the shrink to get f****d didnt help.

[ramboself]

I wasan't talking about myself as far as computers go, i was talking about a lot of schitzoprenic friends the same age who broke down in their teens and have never come to terms with the information revolution, i've got a no

As far as the city lit goes i've been there, the early evening classes it involves travelling through the centre of london in the rush hour, never did fit in, last time my illness was been exacerbated by dsome nasty harrassment, might try it again if my illness calms down due to me getting used to my mother in an alderly mentally ill home,

Was thinking of a course in html code which could lead to web design

Learned helplessness i suspect having been in hospital your getting support, as i suspect from the psychobabble, i'm worrying more about money, when i turned up at mind i got offered cycleing tai chi and yoga groups, may try them but my experience of mental health groups is been ponced off and low level antisocial behaviour, it's not doing anything about money and the torys are planning benefit cuts

[ramboself]

apology that was a bit nasty, it's just i took learned helplessness labelling very seriously indeed when i was a young loony

[Universal Credit]

I had my education interrupted, if it had happened sooner I'd have still got somewhere because I've a inquisitive personality. Some have and some haven't. The thing is you can't make people curious if they don't want to be. Neither can you remove it if it is there, although the drugs at high dosages are a cosh to thinking altogether.

[ramboself]

I was thinking off a no of my friends, one was doing the european driving license at his local library and was finding it hard going, another one had to give up a computer she bought, then theres the one who asks for old fashioned tapes of music, has problems with a cd player

[Universal Credit]

ramboself, on 24 March 2012 - 04:47 PM, said:

I was thinking off a no of my friends, one was doing the european driving license at his local library and was finding it hard going, another one had to give up a computer she bought, then theres the one who asks for old fashioned tapes of music, has problems with a cd player

Retro to a better time when music was music. If anything casettes are more tricky than CDs,especially when the spool unravels itself inside the player.

[ramboself]

I was just pointing out that some schitzoprenics have problems with large groups most computing is taught in such and if you broke down before what is taught existed to be taught you have a problem