Meet the wired retired

Wired, retired and so hip it hurts

4 August 2007

Oldies have taken to the digital age, says Amelia Torode, and so have their grandchildren. It’s the middle-aged professionals who fear and resent it

The biggest web-celeb from YouTube last year was not Paris Hilton or Posh Spice, but an octogenarian widower from Leicester, Peter Oakley. By his own admission, Peter enjoys a good bitch and grumble, often about the way society has taken a turn for the worse. You could easily make the assumption that someone like Peter would be a classic Digital Luddite, but you’d be wrong. He is actually a seminal figure in this newly converging world of digital media and mass entertainment. You may have heard of his online pseudonym: geriatric1927. This time last year geriatric1927 recorded a short autobiographical video and uploaded it to YouTube. He was hoping that his views on modern life and his memories of England during the second world war would strike a chord: ‘Hopefully some of you will respond,’ he says.

And respond we did. Within a week geriatric1927 had become the most subscribed user on YouTube. Buoyed by grassroots support, Peter continued filming and uploading his vlogs (video-blogs). Entitled Telling It All, they have been watched by almost three million people. In one webisode Peter says, ‘This YouTube experience has been one of the major changes and breakthroughs in my life and given me a whole new world to experience. So many of you asked me questions about my life, even if I am a grumpy old man, you are interested in my life and I just want to let you know how appreciative I am.’

His story was picked up by media outfits all over the world. Everyone wanted an exclusive with geriatric1927. But Peter decided to avoid the mainstream media, preferring to keep his conversations via video in the new social media world of Web 2.0. Wikipedia called him ‘the coolest old dude alive’.

On a personal level I can see evidence of a new approach to technology taking place. My parents-in-law do not consider themselves to be technophiles, but they were the first people I know who downloaded Skype. Skype, a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) application, allows you to use your computer like a telephone and ‘talk’ through the microphone to other computers for free. Next they added a webcam as they wanted to be able to video-chat with their three young grandchildren in Paris. After quizzing my friends about their experiences with their own parents, I realised that digitally savvy grandparents are increasingly becoming the norm whereas none of us urban young professionals are using anything like webcams.

But Skype was just the beginning for my in-laws. They decided that they needed better digital backup and storage for the photographs of their grandchildren, so they created an online Flickr account. Flickr allows them to upload and share their pictures more easily. What made me stop and think is that only three of my contemporaries have Flickr accounts.

Something odd was definitely going on.