Do you know an elder who is very paranoid of the internet?

Forgot to say, I live thousands of miles away from my retired-doctor-uncle and he has 3 kids, one of which is a doctor, so I'm not involved in his life.
Thanks, Everishlass; that all sure sounds familiar! The ones who are this way don't trust any computers at all. My dad does not trust the printed word because it comes from a computer. If he saw his doctor with a computer, I think he would freak out.

I think many elderly people are scared of the internet. They hear stories about identity theft and think that this is all one big criminal enterprise we've got going. I know a very smart lady, she's 86, and she's into geneology and researching her family history and I told her about the online sites that she could work with but she won't even entertain the though. Instead she goes to the library and writes letters to county offices in other countries. She thinks if she gets on the internet someone is going to steal something from her, like a hand can reach through the screen and take her valuables. At some point I think most elderly people are too resistant to change. This same lady complains that her Dr. carries a computer around with him and that just anyone can look up her health information. I told her no one cares about her health information but she's very suspicious of it just the same.

But when I whip out YouTube videos of Shirley Temple singing "Good Ship Lollypop" she loves it.

It sounds like this isn't the only thing they are paranoid about?
Speak with his doctor about medication for these issues...

Our library offers Internet classes for free!

Good. I would much rather potentially vulnerable older people were paranoid about the internet than too trusting.

If you really feel it would benefit your uncle, why not find him a local silver surfers' class run by responsible people and see if he enjoys it. The internet is useful but not indispensable.

Dang autocorrect...my mother was paranoud of identity theft.

Not paranoid about the Internet but my bigger was oaranois of isenity theft and really anything that the media over plays out. I think this is somewhat normal for the elderly when they take the news so literial
.