40% of over 75s do not use the internet

[antelopevalley]

I have just read this statistic in a report and it has left me wondering about the other 60%. Life will become increasingly difficult for them. And if they are not using it now, they are unlikely to be using it in a few years time.

Eyesight can be corrected. I have arthritis in both hands but lo and behold here I am using the internet - and will continue to do so for as long as my brain holds out.

Well good for you. But not all eyesight problems can be corrected, and some people's physical abilities may give out before their brains do.

Which sight issues associated with age can’t be corrected?

Eyesight can be corrected up to a point. But only up to a point. If all you need is normal reading glasses you will be fine. But lots of other issues such as cataracts - long waits to get them operated on - are a different matter.
Your arthritis is obviously not too bad if you can still use a keyboard. The dexterity required for a keyboard and mouse is more than many people realise.

Loads of eyesight issues can not be corrected. Age-related macular degeneration is the most common. My friend's mother is nearly blind as a result. But there are plenty of others.
Many people with age-related vision problems that can not be corrected have good enough eyesight to get out and about and live normally. But reading is impossible or extremely difficult.

I don’t use a keyboard @antelopevalley and my arthritis is actually quite bad, thank you. My eyes, however, are excellent having had cataracts removed from both of them three years ago. It’s the best £5k I’ve ever spent.

@Blossomtoes do you use voice software?

My mum (83) uses the internet inasmuch as she is capable of using whatsapp to send a message or have a video call and is able to use an app to order her groceries online. However, she would not be at all confident to use the internet in a wider sense and has a huge barrier to using a laptop, or tablet, due to the cost of broadband. She only has her pension and pension credit, so whilst she can afford to pay her day to day bills, she absolutely cannot afford to take on another bill for broadband. A quick google shows the cheapest broadband deals for her address are around £18, not including calls or line rental. A few years ago there was talk of a basic broadband package for just this group of people and I registered an interest for her, but that seems to have disappeared without trace.
It is very annoying when so many services are now moving online and leaves this group of people without easy access to a lot of services.

No. Ipad.

My granny has terrible arthritis but does manage to use a keyboard still - and indeed a touchscreen. She uses one of those touchscreen pens for the touchscreen. She'd struggle to take photos etc but she can see our photos, use internet banking, buy things over the internet and get her shopping delivered. She's 88 in a few months - but was both a secretary before she married (so querty keyboards aren't an issue) and has had a home computer since she was maybe in her mid sixties - so has had a good while to get to grips with it. She still struggles if something goes wrong, but she even uses a kindle and a firestick.

She's terribly disabled but would be much more so without her access to technology.

I am surprised. My mum could no longer manage it. The last time I saw her do anything online, it took her over two hours to pay one bill.

We do all our mums stuff she 80. Its tiring. She just not comfortable with technology. But adds alot of time onto things..

I do find a substantial number of over 80s do not use the internet at all. There are probably a larger number of elderly who are limited in what they do.
I don't know anyone whose disabilities such as arthritis and eye sight stop them going online. I think it is more of an issue with people not wanting to learn. It does limit what you can do in modern society.

@LadyJaneHall My father could no longer see well enough to use his kindle or tablet. Admittedly he only used his tablet to check his email, but he had used his kindle every day.

I remember when I started to have to provide extra support to my parents around 6 years ago, how much they were struggling with something as simple as booking a GP appointment. The majority of appointments were released online at midnight and by the time the phone lines opened at 8 am there were rarely any appointments left when my dad got through, even when he started turning up at the surgery in person he rarely got to see his named GP. I started booking them online and dad was convinced I had some secret contact in the NHS!

My parents were both teachers but at a time when any records were on paper and both took early retirement in their late 50s so had been retired 25-30 years by this time so computers really were another world to them. I think they had both attended a 'computing for beginners ' course at the library at some point in early retirement but didn't have the equipment or the motivation to continue - and of course things have moved ahead so quickly in this respect since that time .

I know classes are available (Silver Surfers) but I used to work in a library where these were offered now and then. The bloke who ran them - a scruffy 20 something with a ponytail - never seemed to understand how elderly people turning up for the first time, who’d maybe never even touched a computer before - were very likely extremely nervous. His manner was frankly very lacking and I’m sure he put quite a few of them off.
I would hope that most classes are a lot better!

Having said that, I well remember one old boy - must have been over 80 - who came in (not for a class) with a newspaper article containing a link to something he was interested in. We weren’t busy so I was able to show him the basics - he’d never touched a computer before but got the hang of it really quickly and went off so chuffed, saying wasn’t it wonderful, he was off to buy a computer asap.

Might dd that virtually all the over 75s I know have used the internet for years.

It is a shame the internet is inaccessible to older people through either lack of confidence in technology (including wanting to engage with it and an unwillingness to learn), fear of being scammed, or for health reasons as there are so many things there that would help the aged.

I am well into my 50s now, and part of my job involves being the go-between between application designers and business users and ensuring the right product is delivered and it is surprising how technically terrified incompetent your average, intelligent 40+ year old is.

I agree that the problems you mention are very valid, and a real issue for many older people.

But, I wouldn't discount the major benefits of internet / IT for older people who are able to make use of it. My dad is 88, he has some sight but very little (registered severely visually impaired), has rheumatoid arthritis, and has used hearing aids since early middle age.

He'd be absolutely lost without the internet & the tech he uses. He can't drive any more (obviously!) so shops online. It's much easier for him to phone or message by using voice commands to Siri on the iphone (much better than the android alternative in his experience) rather than trying to dial on the landline. He's also got the iphone set up so that it answers automatically after 10 seconds unless he dismisses it.

He has just got new hearing aids that he can control (using Siri / voice again) to give the best response in all sorts of weather / social conditions, and says his hearing in crowds is better than it's been since his 40s. They also charge using a docking station rather than having fiddly batteries.

He can't read print (even large print - and when he could the limited range was frustrating), but he can read Kindle books on a large format kindle fire with the text set to a size / font that works for him. He can also have the same books on audio, and they will synchronise so that if his eyes are tired he can switch format. He also spends a LOT of time listening to music on Spotify which he can if he wants stream directly to his hearing aids.

Obviously all this is dependent on him being someone who is willing / able to engage with tech - while he left school at 16, he always had jobs that involved machinery & is very up for learning new things. And, absolutely critically, none of the above is cheap, so if he didn't have a good pension he wouldn't be able to access any of this stuff. (Though on a positive note he tells me that some friends have got equally up to date hearing aids through the NHS which is great)

So I guess it's a mixed picture, not all good but not all bad either.

That will change substantially in the next decade. In ten years time I’ll be contemplating my 80th birthday. Assuming we don’t lose our marbles, I can’t see my contemporaries stopping using the internet, it’s an intrinsic part of our lives.

It is frustrating as my FIL is 68, retired a year ago and asks me
to order Amazon, claims he doesn't know how or scared his card details will be stolen.
His own father is 95, have warned DP I'm not doing for another 30 years!
PCs have been commonplace in workplaces for 25+ years, which means todays pensioners were young enough to have learned.

Your Fil is the same age as me. He’s an exception, I don’t know anyone who isn’t internet savvy - and that includes people in their mid 70s.

You might have a different social circle? Generally anyone who has done office work or professional jobs used computers at work. I know people in their fifties, sixties and seventies who have never once used a computer at work. One a factory worker, a self-employed plumber - you can even now still do paper tax returns, and a cleaner. The idea everyone uses a computer at work is a very class-based idea.

You’re right @antelopevalley. That’s a very good point. But you very rarely see anyone of any class without a smart phone these days.

My mum is 75. She has a £10 Asda phone and has no idea how to open or send a text. She’s only had a bank account in the last year and wouldn’t know where to start with a cash point machine. She goes to the Post Office where the lovely woman behind the counter dishes out her pension to her and pops it in an envelope for her. No broadband, no internet banking, no direct debits or paying for anything using a debit card. Everything is paid by cash. She has never touched a computer in her life.

She’s by far a rarity.

She’s far from a rarity, I meant!

My dad is 69 and has no clue about the internet. We are all glad tbh, as he gets drunk and keeps calling LBC radio.
He would be a nightmare if let loose on something like Twitter.