# Recommend sites for a 60 year old new to the internet **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 30, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769 "2009-07-30T13:06:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mudkicker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mudkicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mudkicker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/1 "2009-07-30T13:06:05Z")
Boyfriend’s dad has recently got online and I’m doing a document for him about logging on, searching etc (he’s very new to it all). I’m also giving him a list of sites he might enjoy - mainly thinking about forums and interactive ones as he takes a fair bit of medication and doesn’t go out much. I have the obvious ones, eg Amazon, Wikipedia, and I’ve also recommended the Dope - what else would you recommend? He’s very into photography but not too political according to the boyfriend, and he won’t need things like [lastminute.com](http://lastminute.com) or other travel sites. US and other sites are fine but UK/Irish would be good too. Just looking for fairly general but interesting and engaging sites, easy to navigate. Cheers. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/2 "2009-07-30T13:19:22Z")
> **[Home - BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news)** > > Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as well as local and regional perspectives. Also entertainment, business, science, technology and health news. > **[BBC iPlayer - Home](https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer)** > > Watch live BBC TV channels, enjoy TV programmes you missed and view exclusive content on BBC iPlayer. > **[HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works!](https://www.howstuffworks.com/)** > > HowStuffWorks has been explaining how things work to curious minds since 1998. Providing factual, unbiased content that's fun to read and makes difficult topics easy to understand. > **[Payday Loans No Credit Check – 97% Approval Rate](https://www.emu.co.uk/payday-loans-no-credit-check/)** > > Apply today for an instant online payday loan. You can borrow up to £1,500 and have the funds transferred to your bank same day! Assuming he lives in Belfast: > **[Belfast Forum - Index](https://www.belfastforum.co.uk/)** > > Belfast Forum - Index > **[Belfast City Council](https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/)** > > Information for residents about Belfast City Council services including events, tourism, bins and recycling, leisure and parking. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/3 "2009-07-30T13:25:16Z")
Photography: Flickr: [http://www.flickr.com](http://www.flickr.com) (Even if you don’t upload any pictures there, it’s fun wandering around looking at other’s pictures. Some of the best are found at [http://www.flickr.com/explore/](http://www.flickr.com/explore/) ) ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/4 "2009-07-30T14:39:22Z")
Maybe WebMD or one or two of the other big medical sites? You said he takes “a fair bit of medication.” If he’s not prone to hypochondria, perhaps he’d like to be able to poke around the information available on his own conditions? Sometimes you don’t think of the right questions at the exact moment when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office. (I sure don’t.) There’s also a bunch of info on [SeniorNet](http://www.seniornet.org). If he does want to get out a little more, there’s a lot of senior-oriented volunteer connections at [Senior Corps](http://www.seniorcorps.gov/)and [Experience Corps](http://www.experiencecorps.org). ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/5 "2009-07-30T15:21:57Z")
Google Maps. The satellite view combined with street views is a fun and useful tool to learn how to use. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/6 "2009-07-30T15:30:48Z")
Set his home page to Snopes. Preferably the section dealing with email scams. Don’t let him surf unsupervised until he’s read all about the most common ones–no, Bill Gates won’t pay him to email anybody; no, the guy with the Nigerian bank account is not his friend, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/7 "2009-07-30T19:46:33Z")
If he has any interst in Music try [Hydrogen Audio (Dot) Com](http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/). If he wants to learn anything about WWII or for anyone else that likes political stuff, especially historical “what if’s” go to Axis Forums (they do other topics besides WWII) If you are at all interested in TV and Tecnical gadgets or Movies, DVD etc try [AVS Forums](http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/) Finally have him go to [Google Groups](http://groups.google.com) and have him look up old usenet topics. There are tens of thousands of interesting things people used to write about in the days before the Web 2.0 and people used Usenet instead of message boards. They have every group imaginable. I was surprised to find sites dedicated to signage along Interstate highways among other things. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/8 "2009-07-30T20:05:29Z")
If he’s into photography (and particularly if he likes history too), he might enjoy [Shorpy.com](http://www.shorpy.com)–lots of amazingly restored older photographs, dating back to the 1800s all the way to more modern times. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/9 "2009-07-30T20:10:24Z")
[http://www.stumbleupon.com/](http://www.stumbleupon.com/) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/10 "2009-07-30T20:27:41Z")
He’s 60 not 90, point him to some fun sites on the web. (Yeah, you, guessed it, I’m 60 too, although I’ve been on the net since its infancy.) Hundreds of great old movies in the public domain at the [Internet Archive](http://www.archive.org/details/movies). Let him bust a few ribs laughing at [The Onion](http://www.theonion.com/content/index) and [Cracked](http://www.cracked.com/). [YouTube,](http://www.youtube.com) is a must, something for all tastes there. And don’t forget to tell him he can travel the whole world from his armchair with Google Earth. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/11 "2009-07-30T20:36:27Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > They have every group imaginable. I was surprised to find sites dedicated to signage along Interstate highways among other things. Yikes!! Are you sure? The last few times I looked at any of that stuff it was all completely choked up with horrible porno spam. Admittedly that was a good long time ago now, but I thought that had driven everyone else out too, and onto web based message boards. Did Google somehow find a way to get rid rid of the spam and entice real people back? Even before the spam flood, you could stumble across some _very_ raunchy stuff (as well as a lot of very stupid, boring stuff) on Usenet in its heyday. I think it was from Usenet that some people got the idea that the internet was mostly about child porn (although it is true that it could not actually shove a picture directly in your face, like a web site can). I was going to suggest [Google news](http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=gn) (and Google itself, of course, but you don’t need me to tell you that). If he likes his news a bit more tabloidly, maybe Yahoo is better. The advice about scam education is good. (And explain to him why you should _never_ use reply-to-all in email.) (Hmm, I see the SDMB thinks internet needs to be capitalized. What if there were a network of networks on an alien planet then?) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/12 "2009-07-30T21:04:17Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > If he’s into photography (and particularly if he likes history too), he might enjoy [Shorpy.com](http://www.shorpy.com)–lots of amazingly restored older photographs, dating back to the 1800s all the way to more modern times. Shorpy gets its stuff from publicly available sites, such as [Digital Collections | The Library of Congress](http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html). ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/13 "2009-07-30T21:08:16Z")
Has he tried going to google images and typing the name of a famous actress or celebrity? Hours of fun are bound to follow! ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/14 "2009-07-30T21:12:48Z")
Lemon party? (don’t google that at work, okay?) ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/15 "2009-07-30T22:16:07Z")
Craigslist casual encounters? j/k!!! Good advice giving him the heads-up on scammers. The minute my dad got online he immediately wanted to dive head-first into selling crap on e-bay and I had to warn him that every third email he got from that day onward was going to be from someone claiming to be his bank or PayPal and not to give his credit card or bank account or PIN to ANYBODY unless he went through the official site. Along the same lines of Flickr…National Geographic has huge stores of professional and amateur photographs, as well as contests for people to submit their own snaps. Does he have any hobbies? Favorite TV shows/actors/actresses? Music groups or styles? For example I frequent knitting websites and message boards, the offical Pet Shop Boys website and assorted message boards (and follow them on Twitter), You might consider signing him up for a Facebook page if he/you has/have family abroad so he can keep in touch with nieces and nephews and other far-flung ppl. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/16 "2009-07-30T22:17:50Z")
> **[Engrish.com](https://engrish.com/)** > > Documenting the Engrish phenomenon from East Asia and around the world! > **[Darwin Awards: Evolution In Action](https://darwinawards.com/)** > > Darwin Awards: Vote for the Award Nominees! The Darwin Awards commemorate the (remains of) individuals who contribute to the improvement of our gene pool by removing themselves from it. Enter this portal for stories from the Darwin Awards. [http://www.strangecosmos.com/index.html](http://www.strangecosmos.com/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/17 "2009-07-30T23:54:15Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Lemon party? (don’t google that at work, okay?) also tubgirl, goatse, and pain1 through pain6 NSFW!!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/18 "2009-07-31T01:18:02Z")
I’m older than he is. Just show him how to use Google, and his imagination will do the rest. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/19 "2009-07-31T02:35:42Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’m older than he is. Just show him how to use Google, and his imagination will do the rest. Same advice here. I’m also over 60. I think if you show him google and let him discover his own internet universe. He should be fine. I assume from your first post that he is familiar with computers? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769/20 "2009-07-31T02:48:02Z")
Don’t forget the Crime Library, I spend too many nights up till 4am reading about crimes [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sites-for-a-60-year-old-new-to-the-internet/504769.md?page=2)