Maryrose Lyons blogging since 2003...

Desperately Seeking Older People

May 25, 2007 at 2:55 pm

I had a great idea some weeks ago. A client called me and asked me for a solution to a problem he was having. His dad, a retired and prolific writer, was always on at him to upload his written material to his website. The son was finding the father’s demands to be more onerous than his most onerous of clients, so he called me looking for help.

It sounded like the Dad would be the perfect candidate for a blog. Not only would he be easily able to publish his thoughts without having to contact his son, but he’d be able to open his content up for comments from others, and find joy from his writing in that way.

That got me thinking. There are many older people out there with time on their hands, a rudimentary knowledge of how to send emails, and great stories to tell. In my own family, we’re always on at my Mum to get her stories down. She has such a wonderful Dublin turn of phrase. And she’s a prime example of how 70-somethings nowadays are articulate, travelling, cultured people and not little old ladies who like knitting.

So I decided that Brightspark’s corporate social responsibility project this year would be about helping seniors to get blogging. I reckon we need 8 people over the age of 65 (who know how to send an email) to make this fun and interesting.

I contacted one of the major hosting companies and they’ve agreed to offer free hosting. I’m going to set up the blogs and spend a half a day with the group introducing them to the world of blogging. We’ll discover subjects they want to write about and will read some of the bloggers that are already out there. We’ll learn how to add comments to blogs and how to use RSS to keep up to speed on what’s going on. Matt Cooper on TodayFM has even expressed interest in covering how they’re getting on.

It will be fun!

All we have to do now is recruit the group!

That’s where I’ve run into difficulties.

I have contacted the PR company that’s organising the anti-ageism week that’s taking place in June. I’ve been on to the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s office because he has a strong active aged campaign. I contacted Dublin City Council , the Equality Commission, and some other Government body that they fobbed me off onto – and none of them have come back to me or taken me up on this.

In all cases I’ve made it very clear that this involves no cost to them or to anyone. It’s not about sales and they only thing I need off them is access to old people. And the whole bloody lot of them have done nothing.

Typical.

[I just deleted some of my more heated thoughts on this matter]

Maybe you can help?

• Know someone aged 65 or over?
• With a basic knowledge of how to send an email
• Lots to say on a variety of different subjects.
• Someone who would be up for a laugh?
• Interested in meeting some people of a similar age and a similar disposition

Then contact me.  Post a comment below or contact me directly.  I’m looking at doing the training before the end of June, at a city centre location.

Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments