Miss to Share, Share to Miss

Last week after I had the privilege and pleasure to participate in the forum talk at the 50plus Expo 2014 on 29 March, 2014 at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, Halls Level 4,  a 50-year primary school classmate told me that he missed the event and was interested to know what was I talking about.

So this blog version is shared with him and my friends some entertaining stuff  with them to enjoy.

Although I am not a professional, qualified public speaker and a "newbie" on this scheduled topic "Adopting Technologyto Bridge the Generation Gap",  I am pleased to share my personal experiences.  I thanked  Council for Third Age (C3A) the organiser of  the 50plus Expo 2014 and the participants to attend the "sharing session" to learn from their personal stories on this topic.

The 3-day annual event from 28 March to 30 March 2014 was hosted by Third Age (C3A);  50plus EXPO is the largest and most comprehensive event for baby boomers and seniors.

[If you are above the age of 45 and want to live well and celebrate life, this exhibition is for YOU!

Come to 50plus EXPO 2014 to Get a L.I.F.E - Live, Inspire, Fulfil and Enjoy - with hands-on workshops, health and wellness tips, educational forum talks, entertaining stage performances and activities, health products and services for purchase, daily lucky draws and more!] (Source:  50plus Expo 2014).

Before the session started, I mentioned that I am a "Friends of Yesterday" (FOYers) and one of my blogger friend, Lam Chun See was featured here on The Straits Times on 24 March, 2014.   Chun See's best selling book, "Good Morning Yesterday" was available at the exhibition.  As the books at major bookshops were out of stock, the visitors were informed that Chun See could attend his forum talk the following day on 30 March at Forum B at 5:00 pm.  They could "Meet the Author" session with an autographed book.

Next, I had to introduce myself in person as most of them are my new friends.  They are my Facebook friends who giggled and asked me why my facial appearance look so different?  The photo of me when I was twenty something, but I am now already 65-years-old.  They then laughed.

The images for Facebook avatar are unreal. I am so vain as to post the best of my young photo to cheer myself and to think me of myself as forever young  : )   Never mind lah.  Some Facebook friends have avatar image of  their pet dogs,  pet cats,  favorite celebrities or movies stars.  In the past,  I  had used my 10-year-old photo and my friends told me that I was too young.  We had fun together to enjoy on Facebook!

A series of photos were screen captured from a YouTube video and shown on the presentation slides.

These ignorant kids were too young when the video was uploaded to YouTube many years ago.

They have grown older and I believe they would not say that they "won't talk to old people because old people are old computer which cannot upgrade or access Internet".  I felt sorry for them to think that way.

Thanks to the Silver Infocomm Junctions and Hotspots for every Singaporeans and pioneer generation  Singaporeans regardless of  languages or ages to become IT and Internet-savvy.

In May 2005, a high-level steering committee convened to spearhead the development of Singapore's 10-year masterplan to grow the infocomm sector and to use infocomm technologies to enhance the competitiveness of key economic sectors and build a well-connected society.

iN2015 is a living blueprint, jointly developed with the people and the private sectors, to navigate Singapore's exhilarating transition into An Intelligent Nation, A Global City, Powered By Infocomm. iN2015 will fuel creativity and enable innovation among businesses and individuals by providing an infocomm platform that supports enterprise and talent.It will connect businesses, individuals and communities, giving them the ability to harness resources and capabilities across geographies. iN2015 will be the conduit to enable access to the world's resources and for Singapore to export her ideas, products and services to the global marketplace here .

Since the forum talk topic is to bridge the generation gaps, not to divide the pioneer generations and the young generations of Singapore.  It was stressed that the purpose of computer technology for everyone to teach and learn to integrate the various age groups, not to segregate them.

 

Lets look at how they can live, learn, work and play together!

 

To share a touching story of an old father, son and a sparrow video clip from YouTube.



There is a moral to this story.  In this video, the son was learning as a child.  But when the old father becomes forgetful, the son should teach his father with patience.

In 2012, I had the opportunity to be trained as a Memory Corps volunteer to share with students in the schools in Singapore under the Singapore Memory Project .

 

 

It was an enriching learning experience from the enthusiastic young school children.  Some of them shared their stories told by their great grandparents who were as old as me or much older.

At the Paya Lebar Kovan Community Centre in 2007,  IT and Internet courses were conducted to adult learners.  Most of them are 50plus and look so youthful.  They all have Yahoo email registered during their training at the courses.

To be continued ...