A MESSAGE TO SENIORS

Have you ever wondered when you go into a store to buy an item, if the price asked is a reasonable one? Whether you are shopping for tools, clothes, yard gear or whatever, you can get a comparison price before you go shopping by logging on to the Internet. Even if you don’t buy on the Internet you get the opportunity to see what your item is selling for. Online you will probably have to pay additional for shipping and you may find that it is cheaper to shop locally. Your item may not be available locally, and then you can purchase it on line. And it’s easy. All you have to know are a few basic computer skills.

This brings me to the purpose of this document. Anybody, including seniors, can learn to use the computer. Even if you don’t shop on line, the computer is an amazing source of information on every subject that you can think of. At your beck and call you have a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, do it yourself manuals, sports info, hobbies etc.

I haven’t mentioned playing games or corresponding via email. The reader probably is already familiar with these uses of the computer. Also, downloading pictures from your digital camera and printing them on your own printer whenever you want them.

Computers are part of our daily lives, from the self-checkout counter at the grocery to the gas pump and voting machine. We can’t get away from computers. As the old saying goes, if you can’t fight them, join them.

Computer classes at the Berkeley Senior Center are reasonably priced. They are geared from the very beginner, to those more advanced such as word processing, spread sheets and photo manipulation. They even offer a short course on the Internet and a class on keeping your computer in good running order.

Many seniors have already taken courses on the computer offered at Berkeley Senior Center. Many of them have felt that the learning was very worthwhile. You don’t have to be a whiz kid to learn computers and there is a lot of individual instruction available in our classes at the Center

If I have convinced you to learn more about computers, sign up at the Center. Classes begin again in September. Perhaps I’ll see you there.

Frank Hamilton

Volunteer computer instructor