• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • The Famous Blog
    • Blogging
    • Social Media
    • SEO
    • Marketing
    • Design

Famous Bloggers

How To Blog and Start a Business

  • Contribute
    • Submit News
  • Login

Home » The Famous Blog » Blogging at 76

Blogging at 76

July 9, 2011 - Last Modified: February 14, 2013 by Sarah Johnston

Blogging at 76

The world of blogging seems to be geared towards the young with the knowledge to understand what it is all about. Being a senior citizen and trying to learn how to blog for the first time is like walking into a Star Wars Movie and being introduced to the Dark Side for the first time. Bloggers have a language of their own and at our age we do not understand any of it.

How can a senior citizen learn how to blog and join in?

Even trying to understand a computer at our age leaves us frustrated. I was under the impression that Internet was only about e-mail. Learning how to send and receive e-mails was a frustrating experience of its own. When a file is sent with your e-mail having to understand there is a paper clip and you are to open this and read it.

Not only paper clips, but how to save addresses, create files and folders, delete old messages and creating a new message to send out. Opening the mail was easy but now how to get out of what you have opened? This one leaves us lost and understanding the blue arrows at the top of our screen. Now we are able to use the Internet to read our mail. Because of the Internet, the mail we receive at home is only junk mail. Here they call it spam.

How can we trust the information out there?

Being a senior citizen, we have learned to be skeptical about everything we read. We have seen many times on the television about the scams on the Internet. We see how senior citizens are taken for their retirements each day. How people out there prey on us. So what makes us think we can trust anything that is on the Internet? We are afraid to believe in anything in fear of being scammed and our money taken.

As we pass each day, we watch our great grandchildren grow and use computers for school, games and finding whatever they want on it. We hear them explain, “Grammy, you need to push this button to find what you want.” They are so quick and understand so much. Nobody seems to want to take the time to explain this new world to us.

Before, when we needed information on retirement, investments for our golden years and information on health, it arrived in the mail. Now, we have to try and find a website that shows us this information. Paper is becoming green and electronics are becoming kings. We sit each day trying to fumble our way through the billions of sites which offer us information.

What is blogging to us?

To a senior citizen, blogging is hard to understand. We have no idea about the difference between a website and a blog site. The only chance we have to understand the difference is to search on Google and ask a question. After the difference is clear to us, a website does not interact with you where a blog site does.

Our children seem to think we should share our knowledge. They are so helpful in offering to create us a blog site. Once created, we get a 10 hour lesson on all we are doing wrong. How we are not posting in the right place, how we are not using our categories and finally how we did not create tags for what we have written.

blogging at 76

My daughter tried to explain to me that I need traffic to my blog site to attract visitors. I said to her there is enough traffic on our road why do I need more. Now I have found out that traffic on websites and blogs is not the same. Here we have to find unknown people with unknown faces to come and read what we write. This is what brings us visitors.

I keep getting complaints about boosting my ranking in the search engine. The better my ranking is, the better my changes are of fining site visitors. I should be concerned about RSS feeds. I need to make sure to use keywords in each article or post I make on this blog site.

When my daughter told me to write posts, I thought it would be fun. I enjoy writing and telling my stories. But I would have never in my wildest dreams thought this was anything but a way to pass my time. Now I am coming to find that people do not care what seniors have to say. They are not interested in the ramblings of the old and would much rather read inspiring blogs that uses a lot of 4 letter words.

How to understand?

The more I try to learn the more confused I get. There is so much out there to understand. I think I have figured out categories and to enter my writings into posts and not pages. Then comes another hurdle to overcome: getting someone to read what I have written.

When forced to join social media networks and becoming social, there are so many accounts to create that at our age it becomes difficult to keep track of and find all these accounts.

• Facebiook
• StumbleUpon
• Twitter
• Email
• Reddit
• Yahoo Account
• Google Buzz
• WordPress
• Linkedin
• Digg
• Press This
• Forums
• ClickBank
• Paypal
• Autoresponders
• Host Email Address
• Hosting Service
• Food Buzz
• Affiliate Programs

I am sure there are more out there, but this is the starting of what my brilliant daughter has me signed up with. She is wonderful and has provided me with all types of account information. The link address, username, password and when to go and check to see if I have any new messages.

Once I spent 3 to 4 hours trying to remember where to find these accounts, she told me to bookmark them. I have little time to do anything else. I was under the impression that blogging was for fun and enjoyment. That all I had to do was write something funny or interesting and everyone in the world would come to laugh at what I wrote.

More than just understanding accounts…

The world of SEO leaves me more confused than ever. Just trying to figure out if my blog pages are search engine friendly or not, if I remembered to use my keywords when I wrote articles and if they are embedded into my articles. Now, content is King. The problem with content being King is everyone out there seems to be King. There is not one King with the rest being followers.

To me, everything I write is important to pass down to the next generation. But, if I cannot find anyone to read what I wrote, will I be like all great artists who died? Nobody paid attention to them until they were dead and their paintings started selling for millions. So when we die, will our blog sites be considered important and will people now flock there to read them?

According to my findings, we need subscribers. We need to offer everyone something for free in order to obtain their email address. If we do not have anything to give away for free, nobody will want to subscribe to our blog. If you have no subscribers then you have no followers which means your blog is in a desert waste land dying from starvation.

How to survive?

It is not only time consuming to read all your accounts, see all the email messages you now receive and try to get all this information straight in your head. You need to find blogs to comment on, write articles for submission and write guest posts. How can you ever find the time to write for yourself to share the information you want with others?

With hours on end spent on checking accounts, writing articles, and guest posting, we are left with no time at all to create good content for our own blog sites. I have just found out recently that if you want people to read your blog, you need to be part of the inner circle. You have to now spend your time to meet the people who make up this inner circle of bloggers. Who would want to make friends and be concerned with the ramblings of an old grandma?

The young today have no time to even help us learn how to use a computer let alone explain the makings of an inner circle of bloggers. Seniors today are left behind in the new technology of the Internet and the inner circle of friends. The young find it interesting to join social networking groups, such as Facebook, and gain friends. But these friends are only names and photos on the screen. Do they really care about you?

What is left now?

If seniors want to fit into the new world of cyber space we need to learn how it all works. Internet to me is like knitting. You have to do it one stitch at a time. We are going to have to learn how to crawl all over again before we can take our first steps.

In learning how to be a part of society all over again, we need to understand so much computer jargon that it is mind blowing to us. Before, when we raised our young, we had to hear phrases like “cool”, “groovy”, and “peace man”. But now, we hear phrases such as, “check out this new blog”, “join this social network”, “tweet this” and “write content that is King so everyone will want to read.”

Now for all you out there, my perspective on this new blogosphere is the same as knitting a sweater. We can continue to plug along in our learning efforts and knit one stitch each day or we can drop all the stitches and settle back in a retirement community waiting for our time to pass here.

I for one want to plunge into the dark side and find the door that opens to the light. I think the journey through cyber space can prove to be interesting for all of us. Whether we are young or old, we all have something to learn each day. The only problem that I see now in this journey is where to go and who to follow.

What is the real truth behind all these websites and blogs out there today?

Are they for informing us on what we should know or are they all there to make money?

ShareTweet

Filed Under: Blogging

About Sarah Johnston

Follow @GrandmaSimpsonK

I am a 76 year old Great Grandma learning the world of blogging for the first time. I have a cooking, recipe, and home health food remedies blog site and website. I love to write and to share ideas with others. I was introduced to the world of blogging by my oldest daugher who feels that I need to share my knowledge with the people to help out in the economic state this world is in today. My family has been through 2 world wars and the depression and coming back to home cooking is one way to help feed your family now. We need to stop eating from cans and boxes and throwing things into the microwave. I have started a journal of what I learn each day on the Internet that relates to blogging and how to understand the new world that everyone is so interested in.

Reader Interactions

Related Posts

  • Blogging Limiting Beliefs about Money5 Blogging Limiting Beliefs about Money that You Need to Release
  • What’s Up Bloggers! Roundup #8 with Don Sturgill
  • SEO Trends InfographicSEO is Evolving: Trend You Need to Know About [Infographic]
  • What is Keeping Your Blog from Making Money?What is Keeping Your Blog from Making Money?

{ 40 Responses }

  1. Chirag says:
    Very usefully article !! I am now inspired how to write article..
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you so much. I am so happy that you found this useful
  2. Ricardus says:
    Totally inspired by this story..
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you so much Ricardus. This is not an easy job to try and understand all about the Internet at my age. But I am trying to go on. I am in hopes when summer is over and the Great Grandkids are back in school I will have a lot more time to write more guest posts and send them in. I would love to share more with everyone.
  3. Melinda says:
    That is awesome you took up blogging. There should never be any question that you don't have something to share with the world with 76 years of experience behind you. Plus I checked out your blog and am excited to find some recipes! Yay! My kids will thank you too for my getting back in the kitchen. See...you saved a disenchanted cook. :)
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you for your comment. I am in hopes you will find my blog and stop by and read some of the recipes I have left for people. I need to get busy again on my blog. Hope after the weekend have had the great grand kids this last week and has slowed down my blogging. Thank you so much
  4. Fran the Online Writer says:
    This is the second time I am reading the post. I loved reading it. Many times I wanted to touch that topic, But young generation is so focused on themselves... I want to conguralate the writer to take a step. Sarah I am happy for your, and I believe in you. Seniors are always an asset and they have a great insight, becuae of their experience, professional experiences, and going through parent hood, all makes them a better person,in action and wisdom than those who have not experienced all this yet Keep up the good work Fran A
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you so much for the wonderful comment. I am so happy that you have come back more than once to read my article. I am new to blogging and what I call my self a complete idiot on learning how to social network. I made some mistakes here when trying to answer to people. I am learning but it is slow. We are old and our minds still work well but our fingers do not always allow us to type each day. I am very touched by the warm responsed I have read. I am so happy that others now can see the value Senior have to offer. Your comments are so sweet and I thank you so much for coming back and taking the time to leave me a comment.
  5. Paula Lee Bright says:
    Oh, my! I'd so love to learn more about how your daughter learned to read via computers! I run an online school for struggling readers, and am always so anxious to learn of any good true stories about how children can learn by computer, and how it helped them overcome any difficulties. Do drop me a line if you have a moment. I'd love to talk!
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you so much for your comment. I will contact you about my daughter. I think it should be her telling this story and not me. I am not sure what she did in school in this learning program but it made a big impression on her and changed her life.
  6. Johanna says:
    Hi Sarah, I am very happy for you that your oldest daughter is very patient and eager to teach you the basics about the Internet. I also commend you for being very patient in learning everything that you have learned so far. My mom (who's going to be a senior citizen in a few more years) does not have the motivation to learn the Internet. I have made her her own email account a decade ago, but she didn't use it. I think she fears the unknown. She's so accustomed to typing on her typewriter and writing on her journals and logbooks instead of using the computer (MS Word or Excel). Well, I guess that's how some people are. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :)
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you too for your lovely comment to me. Yes my daughter is a gem. She is very understanding and teaches others before how to work on computers. She has been in computers all her life starting from the age of 15 in school. She had to use computers in a reading program she was in. This taughter her how to read by using the computer. From this time forward that was all she did and talked about. She made sure that we had computers in our home but all we did on them was simple tasks. Like our email and here and there some letters using Word Perfect and later on MS word. I am happy that she changed my mind about the Internet and started me blogging. I hope one day your Mom will do the same. Maybe you should have her read this story. It could open up her mind to see there are a lot of seniors out there now using computers and trying to learn just like her. Thank you so much
  7. Melvin says:
    This is so nice and it warms my heart. When blogging initially got its traction mid 2005, a lot of people are saying its just for the younger generation since new technologies and stuff are only known by the younger people. But fast forward to now I can say I know a lot of older people blogging and it means blogging is really for everyone. But being 76, I was wondering if there are some bad health implications of blogging since obviously it isnt healthy even for a young people to stay too long in front of the computer and do typing. How do you make sure you're not tiring yourself out too much?
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      That is a wonderful question. I think I have primed myself really well for blogging. The reason I was introduced to blogging was my oldest daughter who own a data recovery shop, does computer repair, and networking to build internet services set me up with the blog. She said I was spending way too much time playing spiders on the computer. She said that my mind was turning to winning a stupid card game that did not mean anything. That I should spend my time for more useful tasks on a computer. She said that Grandma left you tons of boxes of recipes and you refuse to open them up. Now is the time before it is too late. Open them up and share them with the world. That is how it all started for me. Well she was right I have found a new energy that I had lost and the time I spend on the computer now means so much to me. I enjoy the new world and trying to understand all there is to know about this. I think that blogging has sharpened my mind instead of hurting me one bit. I am thankful to my daughter for doing this for me. It has given me a new outlook on what life still has to offer me.
  8. Kavya Hari says:
    Initially, blogging is one of the great source of entertainment without any age limits. So, almost of the people should be enjoying their blog. And, this is one of the great post too.
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you Kavya for your wonderful comment. Yes I do love my blog. I cherish the few subscribers I do have and try to share with them all I can. I love to write and share my feeling and thoughts. I was so honored to be choosen out of all the people who come here submitting guest post to Famous Bloggers. I was very honored to be part of this blog and the community of people who come here to read it. I feel like I have meet new friends and they all have inspired me to go on blogging and leaving behind recipes from my family for others when I am gone.
  9. Robert Doebler says:
    Hi Sarah, Its people like who become an inspiration. Seniors come under a special category and it is the time to sit back and enjoy life but it would be wrong to assume that seniors cannot write, . It'll be interesting to have more senior citizens or the wiser people share with the younger generation their thoughts and experiences.
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you so much Robert. I do not agree we should sit back and enjoy. I did that one for years and found that I was board with what I was doing. I would find myself on the computer waiting to have someone send me an email so I could read it. Reading books and taking life easy is fine for a while. I think it is very interesting to learn the computer and see what is out there in the world. I know after retirement we traveled a lot now we do not travel as much. So time around the home needs more than watching TV and reading books. I know that my Mother and Grandmother's all lived way into their 90's and one of my Grandmother's was 101 when she passed away and had a very full active life. None of them ever spent one day in a retirement home. Each one of them still cooked, cleaned, and sewed clothes till the day they died. I look at life that if we are here this long why not share with others what we know and pass on some good stories for all to read when we are no longer here. I think you are right we can write and do have interesting stories to tell the younger generations.
  10. Hunter says:
    I've actually seen senior citizen fashion bloggers and they are entirely accepted and admired by the community. They have zest for life, feisty, fun, fearless and creative women who live their lives to the fullest. If age doesn't matter in love, apparently this is true to blogging as well. :)
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you Hunter. I agree with you so much. My Mother loved to sew and still wanted to attend community colleges when she was in her 80's and 90's. I know at 91 she took a class to learn how to refurbish antique furniture with my husband. She loved this class and loved to sew the new material for the chair or couches they were working on. The year before she enrolled in a Chinese cooking class that was held 1 night a week. She wanted to learn how to cook Chinese food. I think if she could do this at her age why not me. I want to try and take some examples from her and what she did and now apply them to my life. I am finding that life has a new meaning and learning comptuers is not as easy as cooking but gives me a lot of enjoyment each day. Maybe our niche is not as popular as others and we do not have the traffic and people reading our blogs but it is a lot of fun to decide what to write and share. I now find myself reading ideas about getting people to comment and that my mind is more creative than before trying to think of new and interesting ideas that no one has tried before. I think learning computers and blogging has sharpened my mind once again and starting me thinking on a lot of different ideas I can offer people to live a fuller happier life. Thank you so much for your comment.
  11. Dheeraj says:
    Title is very nice and blogging is also a source of entertainment and success. So It may be really helpful for senior citizens to get success and fun both at 76.....
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      I am hoping in posting some articles that more Seniors will take an interest in Internet. There is so much out there for them. They can even do their home shopping on line if they can no longer drive a car. I think that everyone of any age can benefit from the knowledge Internet has to offer. I am so happy that my daugher set up a blog for me and told me to have fun. I feel young again and like I am back in school. But this time there is no teacher only Google.
  12. Andreas says:
    Blogging knows no age difference. Everyone with a desire to write can start a blog, from a very young to a very old age. With some assion and persistence the blog can even become very successful.
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      You might be right. I feel like an idiot on the Internet stumbling my way around. But each day it gets easier and I am learning how to book mark what I want. Now if I can only figure out how to find them again. There seems to be a lot of them and it takes time to go through all of them. I just learned how to make folders to file them in. I am learning and one day I will have it down.
  13. Vijayraj Reddy says:
    Blogging does not have age limit, i know some senior people who earn huge pension via blogging which is their passion...
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you so much. I did not come to the Internet to make big money. I only came to share my recipes from my Great Great-Grandmother who came to America on a boat. I have no fancy ads on my blog site or website. I love to write and just want people to see what I write. I think they will love these recipes if they can find me and read them.
  14. johnseens says:
    Thanks for sharing nice blog post, i like it so much
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      You are so welcome and I am happy to share with everyone. I think that people need to know us.
  15. Sarah Johnston says:
    Thank you so much Vivek and Anna. I am happy to see that you enjoyed my post. I am trying hard to understand the world of Internet and hope others my age will do the same. I know that others my age can not read these posts becasue they have no idea how to find them. But hoping that some will share with other and all the world of Internet will be open for us.
  16. Vivek Parmar says:
    Thanks for the wonderful post. For learning their is not age all you need is determination and hard work
  17. Heather todd says:
    Thanks for the great post....
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you I am happy you found it interesting.
  18. TrafficColeman says:
    I wrote about a old man blogging on my blog about a year ago..he found a niche where he is making good money today. Your never too old. "Black Seo Guy "Signing Off"
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      I hope you are right. I feel like an idiot when using computer. I hope it gets eaasier for me.
  19. MihirNaik.Com says:
    Oh! I found this article very useful. I must say you have taken care of all the points. and you have explained it with details and due care!
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      You are so sweet. I just want others to understand that Seniors' are not a burdon and we can still learn to Blog and use the Internet. It might take us a little longer to understand and we work at a slower pace than you do but we can still learn.
  20. Edgar says:
    We all began with the same questions in mind. I remember that i didn't know the difference between a website and a blog myself when i was starting out. As far as i can remember Google has answered every possible question that popped to my head back then. I think the best way to learn (whether you're a senior or not) is to make things go gradually and not try to force all things in your head at the same time. I congratulate you for your efforts to learn this world and i hope that you can share with us your experience so we could learn from it.
    • Sarah Johnston says:
      Thank you so much. I am trying to share my experiences now. My daughter decided that one blog was not enough. She made me a second one. This one is more of a journal on what I have learned. I keep my notes on it to share with others. I try to explain the difference in Blogs and Websites, how to use the search engines and much more. I know I do not do this one often becasue I spend most of my time searching and learning. Trying to social network takes up so much of my time. I wish that I had more hours now in a day to do all this. I am starting to find the Internet interesting and enjoy blogging.
  21. Anna says:
    Hi sarah- thank you for this wonderful post. I think I can understand better how things are going now.

Primary Sidebar

Our Newsletter

Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our blog.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Popular Articles

  1. Top 10 Sites Where You Can Get Paid to Write 115,649 views
  2. How to Get Targeted Twitter Followers Fast 92,036 views
  3. How to Set Half Rating Scale 1-5 (Poor to Excellent) by Words 86,755 views
  4. 66 Awesome Social Media Quotes 78,368 views
  5. 50 Traffic Sources You Should Milk Like Crazy 75,081 views
Schema Structured Data for wordPress
  • Blog
  • Contribute
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclosure Policy

Copyright ©2020 · FamousBloggers - All Rights Are Reserved · Powered by Genesis Framework

  • Login
Forgot Password?
Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.
Go to mobile version