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How To Enjoy Your iPod – A Guide For Seniors

Christmas has come, and Christmas has gone, and though you’ve been long in the tooth for a while now, one of your kids or grandkids still decided to give you a high tech gift. It’s a very pretty little gift that’s nice to look at and feels nice to the touch. It’s shiny, and comes in your favorite color and has this small shiny screen. It’s an iPod, and everything about it makes you want to be really pleased and happy, but – how the heck do you use it?

Many seniors today are as tech savvy as anyone. Grandmas can blog, gramps can email and buy stuff from eBay and Amazon, or maybe even sell stuff through eBay and other online selling sites. But we really do have to account for those who are tech agnostic, those who have a certain aversion to things high-tech – especially something as futuristic looking as an iPod. Here are a few tips for seniors to help them enjoy owning this 21st century toy.

 

 

 

The iPod: A Star-Trekky Looking Walkman
For those seniors who have this nagging thought of not being able to operate an iPod, the first lesson you need to learn about the iPod is that you should not be afraid to use it. Imagine your iPod as a futuristic version of the Walkman. It has a Play button, a Pause button, a Forward button, and a Rewind button. It also has a volume dial, or in this case a click-wheel (or slider for the iPhone and iPod Touch). All these buttons perform the same function, and you might find solace in the thought that the Walkman even has a feature that the iPod doesn’t: a big red Record Button.

Unlike digital media players of the pre-iPod era that have a gazillion buttons with massively unusable interfaces, the iPod is simplicity incarnate. The iPod comes with a short and easy to understand manual that will let you enjoy listening to your favorite music in no time. The worse case scenario is that you might have to ask your kids or your grandkids to load your favorite music or your CD collection in it.

Don’t be Afraid to Ask For Help
Most people who have difficulty operating an iPod simply do not ask for a little assistance when the going gets tricky. If you hit a snag and can’t go any further on your own, you can ask anyone who has an iPod for help. It’s so intuitive that you can learn how to operate it with a single lesson.

Also, you can ask the help of someone from you family to help you load all your favorite songs into the iPod, and once that is done, you’ll have no trouble at all navigating the interface. The iPod can be your generational bridge.

Use Playlists
To minimize difficulty, you can opt to use playlists. A playlist is a list of songs that the iPod will play. You can create playlists sorted by artist, album, or by genre. For easy navigation, you might want to have pre-made playlists using your favorite artists, so that you can find them easily. You can simply go to the playlists and select your favorite song from that artist’s list.

Use a Headset
For seniors who like to use their iPods while exercising, it would be beneficial to purchase a headset. Some people complain that the included ear buds keep falling out of their ears while walking around the street or while exercising. Headsets are easy to put on, easy to remove, stays on your head and are not as easily lost.

Use it for Audio Books
If music is not something you need 24/7, you can use your iPod to enjoy Audiobooks. Audiobooks are books that are read to you by a reader recorded as a sound file. Your vision naturally get weaker as you age, and though you’ve missed reading a lot of classics, there’s little you can do now even with spectacles and reading glasses. Wrong. You can get audiobooks and load them into your iPod and catch up on your long overdue reading list – by just listening.

Buy a Necklace, Arm, or Wrist Holster
Little things get lost easily, and iPods are as little as they come. To help you out, you should consider buying a holster or strap, preferably in striking colors to aid you in looking this nifty little gadget that has become your best friend. Not only will it help keep the iPod on you at all times, the striking color will make locating it easier, allowing you to enjoy it more than being frustrated at not being able to find it.