Where can you actually find this "WhatsApp" on the smartphone?
And where do you wipe when there are no more buttons to press?
Answers to such questions can now be found in the “Fit on the Smartphone” course offered by the Peiting community for senior citizens.
The demand: enormous.
Peiting - Waltraud Gutteck is excited. Perhaps after these one and a half hours in the Peitinger Sparkassensaal, she will finally penetrate the smartphone universe. At the moment, these are all alien galaxies for the 72-year-old from Peitinger. “Up until now, I had an old clamshell cell phone with no frills.” She only bought the smartphone new. "But I am completely clueless as the only one in the family." That is probably how it is for most of the 20 senior citizens who are sitting in the Sparkasse room that afternoon. They came from everywhere: Schongau, Rottenbuch, Hohenfurch. The event was organized by senior speaker Alfred Jocher. He counts himself to the rather clueless about the smartphone.
Right at the beginning, speaker Martin Schleier encourages seniors and takes away their fear.
If you were to bring young people at the age of 15 or 16 “a phone with a black rotary dial, then they would press the rotary dial once or twice and nothing would happen.
They can't do that. ”In other words: No problem if you are in the older semester and not a smartphone checker by default.
“You just have to do that, that that.
And then it goes like this. "
Schleier also knows: If the children or grandchildren want to explain the smartphone to grandma or grandpa, “then they say: You only have to do this, that, that.
And then it works like that. ”Schleier's fingers swipe at lightning speed over a fictional air cell phone.
You can hardly follow the movement with your eyes.
Consistent: "Unfortunately, that won't help you either."
Martin Schleier, once the rector of the Altenstadt development center, knows his way around IT.
His smartphone training for seniors also included many basics: Never open emails whose sender seems dubious or unknown.
“You don't open your front door to everyone and say: Come in and take a look around!” Such email senders would “probably not have any arduous goals”.
Further security tips: No online banking via smartphone.
Do not use open WiFi networks in order to avoid unauthorized access to your own smartphone data.
Never shop in online shops without an imprint.
Never pay in advance for purchases.
So much for security.
However, the smartphone offers something for all situations.
“If an accident happens, use the photo app!
If it wasn't, just delete the picture. ”Or the senior citizen has lost his way or lost: smartphone out, sat nav on.
It's that simple. True to the motto: "Try everything, nothing can happen!"
Operation with the touch display poses problems for some participants
A big topic for seniors: How do I get WhatsApp on my smartphone?
After all, you want to talk to your grandchildren more often.
So: let's go to the “Playstore”.
"If I press it, all I see are games," explains an elderly lady, looking at the display.
The “Playstore” has nothing to do with games as such.
Look at the magnifying glass in the upper right corner.
Enter "WhatsApp".
This is followed by strenuous typing.
Even Alfred Jocher, no longer very young himself at 72 Lenzen, presses his middle finger firmly into the screen - if this smartphone were made of plasticine, it would certainly have some notable dents.
“I can't cope with the keyboard, I always hit the key above or below,” annoyed a senior a few more seats.
Many a person could have longed for the rotary phone that afternoon.
One thing remains: trying is better than studying.
Because it is difficult to present practical tips because of the different operating systems with which smartphone manufacturers work - every smartphone works a little differently - Martin Schleier has considered a very special cooperation: He would like to make contacts via the secondary schools in Peiting and Schongau manufacture for the seniors.
Because: who knows better about smartphones than young people?
Three to four young people could then coach the oldies.
And the young people can certainly learn a thing or two from the older semesters.