Online Discussion Groups for Seniors During COVID-19

Online Discussion Groups for Seniors During COVID-19

July 29th, 2020

For seniors who are trying to stay home and avoid catching COVID-19 since they are a vulnerable population, here are some new ideas for keeping occupied online: discussion groups.


There are an unlimited number of ways to talk to others online, and we’re going to go over a few a them here.


Facebook


Facebook is probably the best known of the social media platforms. Facebook has “groups” on every topic, and they are easy to search for. Some groups are public and anyone can join. Others are private and you have to ask permission to join.


The beauty of online discussion is that people are in different time zones so it’s available to you day and night. Whatever your interests are, you can find a group that talks about that. 


For example, you can find groups on dogs, wildlife, art, puzzles, classic cars, car engines, children, gardening, woodworking, religions, growing older, medical conditions, and these are just a very few examples.


It’s all free, and the only thing you need is a Facebook account which you can set up in five minutes, or someone can help you do that.


Other Discussion Forums


Facebook is just one of several social media platforms that allows for conversation between people. There are others including Twitter and Instagram.


But beyond social media, there are websites that are just devoted to discussion forums, again, on every topic. All you have to have to do is register—which is free and takes five minutes.


Just to give you a few examples, Reef2Reef is a very busy forum that talks about saltwater aquariums. CoffeeCup is a forum about web design. Garden.org is an online discussion forum that is supported by the National Gardening Association. Whatever topic interests you, there is one or more online forums devoted to it.


In all of the cases suggested above you can access a forum through a laptop, tablet, or phone. Maybe you know a senior who is an expert on something, anything, perhaps retired from a certain business. That senior can become active on an online forum and become the go-to guru on that topic! Others will be very interested to talk to you and mine your knowledge.


We do, however, want to remind our readers to exercise some caution online talking to strangers. Some people set up a separate email just for participating online to hide their identities. You never want to give away a lot of personal information to people you don’t know. Be careful, but have fun.


The Hamlets at Vernon is an assisted-living and long-term care community in Vernon, BC, Canada. Designed to take the worry out of senior retirement home living and following the tenets of Christianity, The Hamlets at Vernon offers compassionate care in a beautiful environment.


If you have any questions about this article or would like to talk to us about our community, please call us at (236) 426-1488.