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This can also be a problem for homeless people. If you are homeless and digitally savvy, the internet and a tablet or smartphone or laptop or even library card

This can also be a problem for homeless people. If you are homeless and digitally savvy, the internet and a tablet or smartphone or laptop or even library card can be huge, huge assets that make homelessness vastly less burdensome. But for some homeless people, job hunting is a nightmare because they don't have the internet savvy and, on top of that, they don't own a laptop and they may not know they can get access to a computer at the library (at least when there isn't a pandemic on). Kudos to her for taking the time to do this. I don't know how to solve this, though I run some websites and what not aimed at trying to provide useful info to homeless people and people at risk of homelessness and I advocate to whatever degree I can for trying to get smartphones and the like into the hands of homeless individuals and people at risk (and people with prison records are at risk if you can't infer the obvious just from reading these tweets).

lethologica 6y ago
I've been going through something similar with my Mum recently. She's on the verge of homelessness and has a disability. In Australia, her job provider is supposed to help her find a job given her current situation. She has been there for nearly 4 year and no one there has been able to find her a job (I only just learned of this and have helped her to move from her current agency to another one that seems better equiped to help her) But, because she has no income (she is left with about $40 a fortnight after government assistance) she has had to cut off her internet connection, phone connection, and her ageing laptop of nearly 10 years has also completely died. Unfortunately, I didn't learn of this until just a few years ago, but even in that small gap of a few years between where she was able to still afford all of these vital services and bits of equipment and use them perfectly fine and by the time she couldn't, she grew completely disillusioned with technology and has an extremely difficult time in using even basic smart phones. On top of that, it is almost impossible for her to apply for jobs through this device. Trying to teach her how to write up a cover letter on the Google Docs Android app was impossible. It has really opened my eyes and taught me to be a lot more patient and empathetic with people struggling with modern technology. It feels like a lot of these improvements are supposed to make our lives easier, for for a few, it does nothing but make it harder and I don't know how to solve this problem or if it even can be. Are these people just to be left behind?

lethologica 6y ago

I've been going through something similar with my Mum recently. She's on the verge of homelessness and has a disability. In Australia, her job provider is supposed to help her find a job given her current situation. She has been there for nearly 4 year and no one there has been able to find her a job (I only just learned of this and have helped her to move from her current agency to another one that seems better equiped to help her) But, because she has no income (she is left with about $40 a fortnight after government assistance) she has had to cut off her internet connection, phone connection, and her ageing laptop of nearly 10 years has also completely died. Unfortunately, I didn't learn of this until just a few years ago, but even in that small gap of a few years between where she was able to still afford all of these vital services and bits of equipment and use them perfectly fine and by the time she couldn't, she grew completely disillusioned with technology and has an extremely difficult time in using even basic smart phones. On top of that, it is almost impossible for her to apply for jobs through this device. Trying to teach her how to write up a cover letter on the Google Docs Android app was impossible. It has really opened my eyes and taught me to be a lot more patient and empathetic with people struggling with modern technology. It feels like a lot of these improvements are supposed to make our lives easier, for for a few, it does nothing but make it harder and I don't know how to solve this problem or if it even can be. Are these people just to be left behind?