by Sandy Sand
Boomers aren’t the only ones who are terrified of these new-fangled computer contraptions.
I was nowhere near “boomerage” when I was forced to learn how to compute for my newspaper job.
I stalled kicking, screaming, wailing, moaning and flailing my arms right up to the last class my company offered and I no choice, but to attend.
Without a wink of sleep the night before, I tip-toed into the room and took a seat in the back until I was spotted by the eagle-eyed instructor, who made me the object of his tutelage.
It turned out my worrying and wailing was for naught; I caught on faster than anyone…but…the BIG BUT…
Just like typing, when I took a class just long enough to memorize how to navigate my way around the keyboard, I dropped the class. My approach to computerizing was -- and remains to this day -- the same.
I can navigate my way around the Web, but I find the entire thing totally bewitching, bothering and bewildering.
Oh, I’d like to be one with computers, but just like having a clean house, not enough to do anything about it.
I want a magic computerized pill to make me a digital age genius.
Boomers are finding that they are facing that same confusion and bafflement of computer machines, even though they are an easy means of access to applying for their Social Security benefits. Benefits they worked for all their lives to receive when they reach retirement age.
I don’t remember how my kids helped their grandfather apply for Social Security, but I think they did it the old-fashioned way by phone and Pony Express snail mail.
No matter. That was a while back.
According to the Associated Press, Social Security Administration (SSA) officials are estimating that 10,000 boomers a day will apply for benefits over the next 20 years.
Coming online, so to speak, are “80 million baby boomers,” said Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue. "We just don't have the infrastructure to handle that workload in the traditional fashion."
Instead of driving and standing in line, SSA has made if easy by instituting a new online service that gets applicants from the “here” of their homes to the “there” of receiving benefits in about 15 minutes.
This will also be of great benefit for disability applicants who find traveling difficult, as well as rural retirees, who don’t have easy access to near-by SSA field offices.
Here’s where Patty Duke enters the picture.
The Academy Award-winning actress is the spokeswoman for the Retire Online campaign, and admits that her own computer skills “are wanting.”
“I was able to do it (apply online) with my limited skills,” Duke said after her husband gave her a demonstration. “It was very user-friendly.”
When I’m ready to boom and collect, I’ll check out www.socialsecurity.gov and click on "Applying Online for Retirement Benefits.
If it proves to be as easy a go as they say it is, I’ll give it my 15 minutes, but if it’s a wonderment, I’ll bribe one of my kids to do it for me.
I’ve done it before, and it’s always worked.
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11388978
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