Dear LPG, 

For those who are unsure, video conferencing is a term that refers to talking to more than one person at the same time while seeing them on your mobile phone, tablet, or computer. And with that said, I am directing my question to the readers whom LPG aim to attract, although I know that it will also be relevant for nearly anyone of any age. Did anything good come out of having been locked down during the pandemic?  

I am certain that we now consider it almost all history, and readers might wonder why I am bringing this up again. None of us wants to face the reality, especially those who were locked down alone. It was difficult for people of all ages to be isolated, but many of us who initially refused to embrace this new technology were eventually persuaded to change our minds. The young had the advantage of having grown up with these things for as long as they can remember. Still, I don’t think I am the only elderly person who has decided that we are much luckier than those who experienced the previous situation that forced people into isolation. At least we had our telephones, but I quickly realised that, while talking to friends and family was helpful, being able to see them as well when communicating remotely made them seem a lot closer.

An Age UK statistic shows that sales of smartphones purchased by those aged 65 and over increased by 80% at that time. I was among those statistics, and with a bit of help from my friends over the phone, I surprisingly learned how to use WhatsApp quickly. Back then, there wasn't much else to do.

I soon discovered the group chat, and two or three of my friends would meet up regularly. However, I then encountered another problem, and I wonder if many others felt the same. Once we had all worked out how to video chat, we did it so often that it was sometimes hard to find new things to say.  

Well, the pandemic is finally over, and I am so glad to be able to tap my friends on the shoulder, smell the coffee and cakes we share while we talk face-to-face. However, it occurs to me that many of us are on the brink of forgetting all the skills we once learned. 

Now that we are all out and about during the days, the converted are happy to have them, but I know that I stopped using mine as much as I used to once we were set free again. For a while, the freedom to get out and about left my mobile phone condemned to spend a lot of its time in a coat pocket or attached to the charging plug. However, as the days have started getting shorter again, I am aware that the evenings spent alone at home are getting longer and lonelier for those who live alone.

Although we all meet regularly during the day, my friends realised that we shared one common concern. We all have stories and experiences of feeling just as isolated during winter nights as we did during lockdown. It’s easy to talk about them, but we decided that finding a solution for those long, lonely nights at home was necessary, and we came up with one. We chose to have an evening video meet-up a couple of times a week, which makes winter life more engaging and gives us a reason to recall how to use all the skills we've learned.  

To avoid silent pauses due to running out of things to say, we now organise a five-question quiz once a week. In our case, there are three of us, and each of us finds five general knowledge questions to ask the other two. Arguing over the answers and tallying the scores is such fun that we rarely reach the end of the quiz.

It provides us with something to look forward to after dark, keeps us engaged with technology, and discovering new questions to ask keeps our minds active. The contact aspect of our video meetings also helps us stay connected with each other. 

I recommend it.

WA, Woolwich.

LPG has found some tutorials that will teach you how to make a WhatsApp video conference call, although you might need someone with some IT savvy to assist.

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… and a few questions to get you started…

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