Change of pace

For a few years now I’ve been contributing to a couple of major US tech blogs, writing about startups, apps, platforms, trends, the ways the Web influences our lives… Whatever tripped my trigger.

It’s been a blast, and I’ll keep doing it because it’s a passion. But writing for these blogs is preaching to the choir.

I’ve decided it’s time to pay some attention to the flock. Despite everything I said (see my last few posts), I’ve gone ahead and started writing for HuffPo. It’s for a good cause (or at least that’s my rationalization). There’s a new channel — Huff/Post 50 — for Baby Boomers (which in the US means people born between 1946 and 1964), and I want to evangelize to this demographic on the joys of the Internet.

They need it. It will help make the second half of their lives more fulfilling and less lonely. It’s a resource for enrichment and expression and connection unlike anything any generation of seniors has ever had. And most of them don’t know how lucky they are. Yet.

A number of events big and small influenced my decision. My mother (71) buying an iPad and returning it because she couldn’t figure it out, then buying a Galaxy and returning it because she couldn’t figure it out, then deciding to try an iPad again, but to wait till I can show her how to use it. The fact that I got sick and have had to slow down a bit for the last year. A tweet I saw (just to name a few):

You should be able to buy a kit to build yourself an inner world to counteract the loneliness and isolation of old age.

As I said in my article The Web is a Room With a View, the Web is bursting with such kits. And blank canvases, and blank pages, and curio cabinets, as well as other people and other people’s gardens to pick flowers from. This is what I want them to know.

You can follow Huff/Post 50 on Twitter or subscribe to that channel by RSS. You can find all of my posts here and you can also subscribe to just my posts by RSS. They are published in HuffPo’s 50 and Tech channels.