February 3, 2014 at 12:53 p.m.
YMCA class teaches seniors the basics of navigating social media site
YMCA class teaches seniors the basics of navigating social media site
Geared toward older citizens, the two-hour introductory course, led by Kim Swisher, aimed to teach the basics of Facebook to those looking to get online.
"We talked about doing something for the winter that people might be interested in," Swisher said. "There's cabin fever going around right now. I think a lot of people are interested in Facebook, but are maybe intimidated by it and getting online. We thought we'd give it a shot and see who signed up, and we had a really great turnout. We had way more than we anticipated."
In all, 25 people signed up for Swisher's Facebook course. Most came with laptops, but others sat it on the class with tablets or smartphones.
Swisher used screenshots of her own Facebook page to show the class around the site. She made sure to start from the very beginning.
"We wanted to start with how to get on the site and set up your page," she said. "We also wanted to focus on security. We want them to know how to protect themselves and make sure they know what they're sharing with the public and putting out there on the Internet."
Phyllis Lentz attended the class and said she used to have trouble navigating the site. When she learned about the class, she knew she wanted to come in for a few pointers.
"I use Facebook, but I didn't know how much there is to it," Lentz said. "I would get into places and not know how to correct myself. One of the things I learned is making groups. Also, I learned how to block certain things from my newsfeed, so there's not so much clutter."
Lentz said she was unaware of the privacy settings and was surprised to learn how important it is to monitor what's going on on her page.
"The privacy thing is something I learned all about," she said. "You can stop people from seeing all the things you put out there on Facebook, and limit it to just your friends. I learned that when people tag you in things, you don't have to accept that. You can deny that tag if you want."
While Swisher wanted to make sure her class knew some of the important security precautions they should take, she also wanted them to know how to enjoy the popular social networking site.
"We wanted to highlight the liking process and show them pages they might be interested in," Swisher said. "We wanted to keep it simple with only four or five topics. We didn't want it to be overwhelming. The two hours went by fast, so we know we had just enough material for two hours."
When all the questions had been answered and time was up, the class left. No one could claim to be a Facebook expert, but they were all a little better prepared to log in.
Andy Hildebrand may be reached at [email protected].
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