Contrary to the stereotype of seniors avoiding modern technologies, many are embracing social media, smartphones, tablets and apps. With Facebook and Skype, retirees can stay in touch with family and friends from afar, and with the BugMe! Stickies app, they can jot quick reminder notes to themselves just like they’ve done for decades – but with the benefit of setting alert tones to ensure they remember everything important to maintain their healthy lifestyles.
As more and more seniors embrace technology as part of “aging successfully,” retirement communities have seen the number of residents tapping away on all sorts of apps installed on their smartphones and tablets. Residents at The Stayton at Museum Way, a Fort Worth, Texas community sponsored by Senior Quality Lifestyles Corporation (SQLC), are one such community that has jumped head first into the large pool of apps available to them.
BugMe! Stickies is an app popular among seniors because the handy virtual sticky notes it offers enables seniors to create fun reminder notes for themselves – or to share with friends. With BugMe!, the users can either write with their finger or the app’s keyboard, and place sticky notes on a corkboard. From there, they are able to set alarms and reminders, categorize them as urgent, or even stick them to the phone’s or tablet’s home page for an extra visual reminder.
“Our residents just love to learn and grow more every day, and they have the time to really learn and use apps as a way to access personalized content and stay in touch with family and friends,” said Amy Pearce, Lifestyles Director at The Stayton senior living community. “BugMe! Stickies is a great app for seniors because it’s not only fun to handwrite notes on a digital sticky pad, but it’s also a very practical way to set reminders for themselves.”
While sharing BugMe! notes is a personal way for seniors to express their thoughts in their own handwriting, its core purpose is to serve as a personal reminder system. Each note can be assigned an alarm which will sound off at just the moment the user needs to be bugged. A favorite feature with BugMe! users is the ability to quickly choose alarm times from a pick list of time intervals – such as 20 minutes or “in an hour”. This makes the application very effective for informal, lightweight reminders, such as watching a TV show, taking medicine, returning a phone call, or plugging a parking meter.
A free version of BugMe! is available in the App Store and Google Play Store, while BugMe! Stickies Pro, which offers more notes, can be purchased for $1.99. More information can be found at http://bugme.net.
