Extreme navel-gazing?

I have been very lazy and had not kept up with posting here.

The last few years saw me kind of trying -- but not too hard -- getting back into academia. Nope. Still unsuccessful in convincing a university to take me on.

The writing is doing a bit better as I had been getting published in various academic journals, including some with quite impressive 'journal impact factor'.

Healthwise I had been suffering a pain in my shoulder connected to my writing arm. Sometimes it hurts a lot and I cannot do a lot of things I used to do. A real 'bummer'!

Two things of significance in the last three months:

  1. I am coming to an age where I could have been researching myself. Yes, I will soon qualify for retirement housing and I could have been one of my own research respondents. (I studied sheltered housing for the elderly for my PhD.) How's that for extreme 'navel-gazing' as some anthropologists are sometimes accused of doing?
  2. I am enjoying teaching computer skills to senior citizens as a volunteer at the local AGE UK. In contrast to undergrads that I used to teach, my students are now usually very keen to learn.

What I have found very concerning in my research on ageing is that there is a lot of loneliness. Being able to use the computer and internet is one way of getting around this problem of loneliness.

If you know someone who is reluctant to learn, and if this someone is aged above 60, encourage him/her to seek out a course at an AGE UK or some other charity. They will find it very useful.

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