Essay Draft [1]

ESSAY DRAFT 1

 As the 21st century began, the Internet has become an important tool in many major area such as in politics, in business, or even in daily communication. The Internet has played a vital role in bringing people from all over the globe to be connected with each other on the Web through the social networking websites such as Facebook, and Twitter. However, such benefits seem to be enjoyed mainly by the younger generation who have gone through the education aided significantly by technology. The older generation whose main method of education was dominantly a 'pen-and-paper' mode apparently find adapting to this new era difficult. According to the statistics, only about 30 per cent of Americans over the age of 65 use the Internet, and this compares to nearly 90 per cent of young generation in America using the Internet. The government tries to come up with the solution to bridge the gap between this two groups of people, and the attempt by the community centres to train the older generation to use the basic function of the Internet seems to have done good for the older generation. However, I personally feel that there are more ways to help more of the older people to use the Internet so that they will not be left 'isolated' from this perpetually-progressing society. 

 As the technology keeps upgrading to better cater to the needs by many people, the ways to handle those products get increasingly complicated. The instructions found in the new application in the Internet such as Google Chrome, or Ping are using many technical words most of the time, and this makes older generation difficult to use it effectively. As mentioned earlier, a significant proportion of the older generation had gone through the education system with a relatively low level of aid by IT (if not, not at all for some) , so they often find these new upgrades of technology difficult to follow up, compared to the younger generation who are rather more acceptive to such changes. Therefore, this poses a problem, as older generation may not continue to use the perpetually-changing programmes in the long run, and be left out of the online social circle. So, they might feel lonely as they have not many people to talk with, and this problem can be even more worsen by a 'small family' which is a current social problem in which older generation and younger generation do not live together.

 Government can organise the campaign/programme/activity to help the older generation to be able to master the skills of using the Internet. Instead of hiring the professionals, school students could be invited to teach the older generation (as part of Community Involvement Programme which is compulsory activity to be fulfilled). In this way, students can learn to communicate effectively with the older generation as they teach them, and understand the common problems that these group of older generation face when handling the Internet. This will in turn make students able to treat their own grandparents with better understanding. Older generation can also benefit greatly, as they learn the skills to bring themselves into the online social circle to be kept in touch with their friends, and family members for those who are not living with their children. This will yield a win-win situation.