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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/teens-teaching-grandma-to-google-hungary/>
"It’s three o’clock on a cold Budapest afternoon, and the sun is already
dropping low on the horizon as 64-year-old Györgyi Petik Kis briskly makes her
way to the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library. A beautiful neo-baroque palace,
the building is home to the Hungarian capital’s largest public collection of
books. But Kis is here neither to read nor to sightsee. Past a busy, bright
courtyard, she takes the elevator to the music section, where a couple of
teenagers and two older men are waiting. They all sit around tables as the
Netrevalók session begins.
Over two hours once a month, these sessions bring together older people who
need help with “techie stuff” and the generation that can do this best — high
school teens. Depending on the interest and needs of the seniors, the students
help with things like social media, internet safety, e-book downloads, online
ticket purchases, even AI usage.
“I’m very enthusiastic about doing online things, but didn’t have too much self
confidence doing them on my own as I don’t speak English,” Kis says. “I was
afraid to click on things. What if I messed up?”
Kis learned to use Google Translate in one Netrevalók session and says she is
excited by the possibilities it offers: “This is a new asset for me. I knew
that Google Translate existed, but didn’t know that I can take photos of text
and it will translate for me.”
Nearby, a teen is helping one of the older men, but has to regularly repeat
instructions as the person she’s assisting is struggling to grasp them. Virág
Bartucz from the Ervin Szabó Library, who supervises the program, says she is
often surprised by how unfamiliar the digital world can feel to older people in
Hungary.
“Some can’t register for programs and concerts as they don’t have email
addresses, others need help to copy and paste text, and many don’t know how to
connect to the wifi with their phones,” Bartucz says. She adds that, while
going digital can make things more inclusive for many, “for the elderly, it
excludes them.”
The Netrevalók program was launched in Budapest and seven regions across the
country in 2019 by the Hungarian telecom company Magyar Telekom. In 2023, they
partnered with the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library. Nationally, the initiative
has reached approximately 59,000 participants: 6,900 face-to-face and 52,100
online. In the capital, the project now runs in 25 designated library branches
in collaboration with city high schools, whose students compulsorily need to
clock up 50 hours of community service."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
