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Fin24 user Glyn Bricknell writes:
I have just discovered that the world has made up an alternative name for those of us who are quinquagenarians, sexagenarians (the best name) or septuagenarians.
We are now called "silver surfers" - in informal language it means "an elderly person who is a regular or enthusiastic user of the internet".
Don’t you just hate the word "elderly"? The newspapers will say “elderly woman attacked" and then go on to say that a 55-year-old woman was attacked in her home "blah blah".
Makes my blood boil...elderly is, like, 105.
Also, we only surf the internet, because society has decided that we are of no further use to the workforce unless we enter politics where we could easily become state presidents like Mandela, Mbeki, Zuma or even Berlusconi, to name but a few.
So how can we keep our active brains busy?
We can only read so much or attend so many book clubs or U3A (University of the 3rd Age) meetings to listen to how "they" (the same ones who decided we had passed our sell-by date) are polluting the world with money, greed, power or too much coal burning.
Yawn. Not that things like that shouldn’t be stopped, but who would listen to us?
After all, we are on the brink of the disease beginning with "A" and that’s not alcoholism.
Too much reading is also bad for us, because it can make us think too much about the things we were too busy to think about while we were busy running the world from our corporate towers - like religion and why the world is so effed up.
It’s enough to drive a useless "silver surfer" to drink or atheism, which we don’t want...or do we?
Okay, seriously, I’m not sure if I should commiserate, instigate or motivate my fellow genarians (a new collective noun for all of us).
I think I should settle for the motivation. After all, we come from an age where we were taught "a is for apple" (phonetics).
So, we can spell and speak the Queen’s English - or was the king in power?
We can hold a conversation without using an iPhone or whatever they are called (my Nokia takes me enough places and can even tell me where I am and what the weather is outside in case I can’t see any more or I forget).
And we have been to the University of Life. We are sensible, can do maths in our heads, have invested our money and know all the answers - you name it.
So, quo vadis for those of you bright enough to remember your Latin from school.
Jung wrote about the collective unconscious (I think he foresaw modern youth). He should have written about the collective conscious, which is what we are.
Aren’t we? All in agreement, drop your walking sticks, wine or whisky and shout collectively: “Aye!”
Deep down, we realise that we had to go on our sell by date, because there were youngsters below us who had to be promoted and even younger youngsters who had to fill their vacated posts to lower the unemployment rate from 28%.
This is even though we had forgotten what they still had to learn and that it would cost the company time and money, while our replacements made errors and in so doing, became almost as experienced as we were.
So, it’s no use bemoaning our fates and, as I said earlier, we need a business plan.
So, where to from now?
Who will employ us for our intellectual property?
All together now: “No one.”
So, here comes the motivation...and some ideas off the top of my head.
It would be wonderful if some of you had even better and workable ideas, because we have to accept that, if people of our age are voted in to run a country, or the EU or a large corporation, and take major decisions daily and on their feet, so we can also run anything.
Perhaps some of you have found part-time employment or even started your own businesses, but for those of you who are, like me, a bit fearful of risking capital, having been hit by the market crash in 2008, perhaps there are options.
Among us must be teachers, lawyers, architects, builders, secretaries, ex-managing directors of corporate companies like myself, engineers, social workers, nurses...the list is endless.
We could set up a web site which offered advice for a nominal fee like R100.
I learnt long ago that what people get for nothing, they don’t appreciate. The money we make could be used to set up an NGO for entrepreneurs and in doing so, we could create employment.
We could establish a franchise. I think there is a huge need to create a place where people like us can go to have coffee, breakfast, lunch, a drink or whatever.
A place to come and read the paper or a book or be a silver surfer or meet like-minded people, who want to chat about their households, politics, religion, if the big bang is for real, where did we come from, why are we here, is someone in charge of the world, what do we feel about life after death, spark new romances, find travel companions or have dance lessons.
We could each put in a nominal sum like R10 000 (200 x R10 000 equals R2m) and set up our first franchise in the area where we have the most members.
Once that is established and we have a format that works, we can sell franchises in the major centres and appoint the best qualified franchisor (I was a managing director for a franchise service) to run it for us and distribute the profits on an annual basis.
I’m sure we could all afford an air ticket and a few nights in a hotel for our first meeting and then quarterly meetings thereafter.
Okay...I have waffled enough. There must be far more competent entrepreneurs out there who are full of ideas.
What do you think? Together we can lift our spirits and feel useful again.
- Fin24
Do you agree? Send us your thoughts.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
I have just discovered that the world has made up an alternative name for those of us who are quinquagenarians, sexagenarians (the best name) or septuagenarians.
We are now called "silver surfers" - in informal language it means "an elderly person who is a regular or enthusiastic user of the internet".
Don’t you just hate the word "elderly"? The newspapers will say “elderly woman attacked" and then go on to say that a 55-year-old woman was attacked in her home "blah blah".
Makes my blood boil...elderly is, like, 105.
Also, we only surf the internet, because society has decided that we are of no further use to the workforce unless we enter politics where we could easily become state presidents like Mandela, Mbeki, Zuma or even Berlusconi, to name but a few.
So how can we keep our active brains busy?
We can only read so much or attend so many book clubs or U3A (University of the 3rd Age) meetings to listen to how "they" (the same ones who decided we had passed our sell-by date) are polluting the world with money, greed, power or too much coal burning.
Yawn. Not that things like that shouldn’t be stopped, but who would listen to us?
After all, we are on the brink of the disease beginning with "A" and that’s not alcoholism.
Too much reading is also bad for us, because it can make us think too much about the things we were too busy to think about while we were busy running the world from our corporate towers - like religion and why the world is so effed up.
It’s enough to drive a useless "silver surfer" to drink or atheism, which we don’t want...or do we?
Okay, seriously, I’m not sure if I should commiserate, instigate or motivate my fellow genarians (a new collective noun for all of us).
I think I should settle for the motivation. After all, we come from an age where we were taught "a is for apple" (phonetics).
So, we can spell and speak the Queen’s English - or was the king in power?
We can hold a conversation without using an iPhone or whatever they are called (my Nokia takes me enough places and can even tell me where I am and what the weather is outside in case I can’t see any more or I forget).
And we have been to the University of Life. We are sensible, can do maths in our heads, have invested our money and know all the answers - you name it.
So, quo vadis for those of you bright enough to remember your Latin from school.
Jung wrote about the collective unconscious (I think he foresaw modern youth). He should have written about the collective conscious, which is what we are.
Aren’t we? All in agreement, drop your walking sticks, wine or whisky and shout collectively: “Aye!”
Deep down, we realise that we had to go on our sell by date, because there were youngsters below us who had to be promoted and even younger youngsters who had to fill their vacated posts to lower the unemployment rate from 28%.
This is even though we had forgotten what they still had to learn and that it would cost the company time and money, while our replacements made errors and in so doing, became almost as experienced as we were.
So, it’s no use bemoaning our fates and, as I said earlier, we need a business plan.
So, where to from now?
Who will employ us for our intellectual property?
All together now: “No one.”
So, here comes the motivation...and some ideas off the top of my head.
It would be wonderful if some of you had even better and workable ideas, because we have to accept that, if people of our age are voted in to run a country, or the EU or a large corporation, and take major decisions daily and on their feet, so we can also run anything.
Perhaps some of you have found part-time employment or even started your own businesses, but for those of you who are, like me, a bit fearful of risking capital, having been hit by the market crash in 2008, perhaps there are options.
Among us must be teachers, lawyers, architects, builders, secretaries, ex-managing directors of corporate companies like myself, engineers, social workers, nurses...the list is endless.
We could set up a web site which offered advice for a nominal fee like R100.
I learnt long ago that what people get for nothing, they don’t appreciate. The money we make could be used to set up an NGO for entrepreneurs and in doing so, we could create employment.
We could establish a franchise. I think there is a huge need to create a place where people like us can go to have coffee, breakfast, lunch, a drink or whatever.
A place to come and read the paper or a book or be a silver surfer or meet like-minded people, who want to chat about their households, politics, religion, if the big bang is for real, where did we come from, why are we here, is someone in charge of the world, what do we feel about life after death, spark new romances, find travel companions or have dance lessons.
We could each put in a nominal sum like R10 000 (200 x R10 000 equals R2m) and set up our first franchise in the area where we have the most members.
Once that is established and we have a format that works, we can sell franchises in the major centres and appoint the best qualified franchisor (I was a managing director for a franchise service) to run it for us and distribute the profits on an annual basis.
I’m sure we could all afford an air ticket and a few nights in a hotel for our first meeting and then quarterly meetings thereafter.
Okay...I have waffled enough. There must be far more competent entrepreneurs out there who are full of ideas.
What do you think? Together we can lift our spirits and feel useful again.
- Fin24
Do you agree? Send us your thoughts.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
