The City of Salisbury – in the northern suburbs of Adelaide – recently screened the "Cyber Seniors" documentary as a Go Digi Pop-Up event at the Jack Young Centre – a community centre providing services for people aged over 50 in the Salisbury area.
"Cyber Seniors" is a heart-warming documentary about older people discovering the world of the internet, thanks to their teenage mentors. The documentary follows the story of the seniors and the young people involved as they learn from each other and help to improve the digital skills of senior citizens.
For the City of Salisbury, the "Cyber Seniors" screening has sparked interest in digital support services available through the Council’s libraries and community centres.
The screening was run as part of the City of Salisbury’s Generation Connect project, inspired in part by the documentary. Supported by the Office for the Ageing, SA Health, the Generation Connect project will help older people improve their digital literacy skills and also share their experience with technology by connecting them with youth mentors and digital storytellers.
City of Salisbury Mayor Gillian Aldridge described "Cyber Seniors" as “a great conversation starter”. “It’s an entertaining documentary that immediately
“Thanks to Go-Digi, we were able to use the promotion and discussion material provided to create an engaging and uplifting event. We’ve had a number of people register their interest in our Generation Connect project, other digital literacy services and future Cyber Seniors screenings.”
The documentary contributed to a shift in viewer attitudes about technology and perceptions of younger people. Many liked seeing that younger people were keen to volunteer, enthusiastic about helping and very patient with their mentoring. Participants acknowledged the value of using technology for on-line conversation as well as identifying potential challenges such as knowing which apps to use and finding help to learn how to use them.
If you’re in the Salisbury area and would like to find out more about the Generation Connect Project, contact Ben Teoh at [email protected] or visit the Generation Connect web page.
If you would like to work with us to run a Cyber Seniors screening in your community, please contact the Go Digi team
