Why have some older people not adopted Internet?

[SparklyNewMe]

My parents have embraced it naturally somehow, and DM is very active on SM.
PIL have not - similar ages but always scoffed at it as if it was devil’s work. No smartphones. Both were switched on and active in olde age. MIL is on her own now, dependent on DH and BIL for all admin, and simpler things she deals with on her own like finding opening times are harder. But it was 100% choice, not inability, to adopt it, as MIL went to college in her 60s to learn Microsoft Office and has been using Word and Excel for her hobby. But email or internet - dismissed completely.

Ok, then I'll clarify that some people don't want or need to have any recent technology. They are happy with radio,TV and a landline

Mobile phone costs in the 90s certainly weren't cheap.

@NotCamping but not knowing how to use a computer is completely different to refusing to "embrace the internet".
Which is my point.

@DreamW3aver the 90s was when the contract free pay as you go phones were introduced.
Their whole point was they were relatively cheap.
I used to sell the things.

@DreamW3aver also the 90s isn't "recent technology" 😂

It's absolutely ridiculous to think that sometime could just rock up at a library and manage to learn how to use a computer. You really have no idea what a huge learning curve it was back then. We'd never done anything like it. The language, the terms, the instructions that people gave us that we were expected to understand when we had absolutely no background knowledge of even what the antibiotics on the keys meant, etc etc

As a teacher I had to learn how to use one. Most schools had one teacher who was enthusiastic and went on a course so they could teach us. But that was well before we all had one in the classroom, and like many things, if you don't use a new skill every day, you forget how to do it.

So it's farcical to say that someone who's never come across a computer before could turn up at a library once a week and magically pick it up.

And yes, the Mumsnet bubble of professionals with the money to buy tech, seem to have absolutely no concept of people not being able to afford something that we take for granted now, but which was probably the equivalent of five times the price back then.

The ageism and inability to recognise the huge learning curve, that things were very different back then, and that other people's situations didn't really enable that learning, is really depressing.

If you were in your 40s in the 1990s, you'd need to be quite intelligent, have a work or education environment that gave you the opportunity and the practice, and to have the income to buy the tech. Plus some determination and enthusiasm because it really wasn't easy.

The complete dismissal of anyone who lacked one or more of those needs is incredibly arrogant.

It’s not an exaggeration my parents have never touched a computer. I think they are missing out not being able to FaceTime grandchildren etc but it is their choice. I wouldn’t force or berate them though. I think it boils down to being fearful and not liking change 🤷🏻‍♀️

I fully agree. I started work in 1983 and we had computers, as did many of our clients and I spent most of that decade implementing computer systems (book-keeping, stock control, payrolls, etc) to small business clients. I got my first mobile phone early 90s. I started doing personal telephone banking in the mid 90s. Got connected to the internet late 90s and started online shopping and online banking early noughties. First affordable home computer was the ZX80 back in 1980! Wages paid in cash was being phased out mid 80s with the widespread adoption of debit and credit cards.

I have sympathy for those currently in their 80s and 90s who indeed may have been too old in the 80s and 90s to start embracing modern technology. But today's 60 year old entered the workplace around 1980, the very start of the modern day technology revolution, and would have been "middle aged" in the noughties when it all really took off. Most of today's 60 year olds will have had to use touchscreens, mobile phones, computers, etc in their workplace in some form or other. No excuse at all except for disabilities of course.

Those in their 60s and 70s may not have spent a lifetime in work (hence computer use), but were middle aged and perfectly capable during the introductory years of the 80s and 90s and if they chose not to keep up with modern trends, then that's on them.

Like I say, I have sympathy for the really old 80s and 90s group who were probably already towards the end of their working lives and may not have been exposed to touchscreens, computers, etc. But even that group, great numbers have still embraced the internet (many of those who were able to do when they still had their faculties).

Even today, I come across middle aged people who claim they "don't do the internet" and claim to need help with online shopping, online banking, email, taxes, etc., but then you see them posting on the local Facebook group! Funny how they're willing to use it when it suits them, but claim they can't possibly use it when they're out with the begging bowl wanting people to help them!

Whilst I do appreciate the point, I don't agree that 30+ years is "not that long a time" to pick some internet knowledge up.

Also what is the advantage of the app, shops keep giving me money off for using the app, which I download, use to get the discount then delete. My bank keeps saying use the app but the app is nowhere near as good as the website version, I use a large screen, I don't really use my phone much so the app is on my iPad rather than phone but it's crap and hasn't got the full website stuff. Are websites the next to go I wonder.

My mobile phone contract in the early 90s was £25. With inflation, pretty similar to a typical relatively modern phone today for around £50 per month. Of course, back then it was only calls, so today, you get so much more, i.e. the entire internet.

My Dad and his partner (80's) have never really used computers. They were in jobs that didn't require it and retired before smartphones were a thing.

I'm fairly sure the look you have on your face OP when an older person can't work a smartphone is the same that my dad has when my OH has to rely on the SatNav to drive to the next town over.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

My dad played Resident Evil, Lara Croft etc on his PC and had a Nintendo console, then a Super Nintendo for his hopeless addiction to Super Mario and Donkey Kong. This was from his late sixties and on into his seventies and even his eighties. But he refused to have a mobile phone. Probably because people might call him on it and he didn't want to talk to anyone🤣🤣 I think I might actually take after him in all respects (I do have a mobile phone, but I hate anyone calling me on it!)

Some new technology is awful.

I much prefer paying for car parking at point of use, whether with cash or a card, than random apps.

I'm fairly savvy with tech, but as time goes on, there is stuff I'm not going to be familiar with.
My DH has a smartphone but literally scrolls on Facebook no other participation, reads emails all junk mail and makes calls. If I wasn't here he would be utterly up the creek. Even booking a GP appointment is online only.
DM has given in to using a tablet but refuses to have a mobile. My brother bought her one, it's still in its box.

But if they were a 40yo housewife in the 80s they probably didn't have a PC in their home and would have missed out on any IT training offered by workplaces.

It's also true that some people take to technology much more quickly than others, whether it was their method of learning whilst young or not.

The more you do it, the easier it becomes, which is the whole point really. I got flustered the first few times I tried, but I persevered because I realised it was the future, like it or not. Same with telephone banking, having to use a clunky calculator sized box tone generator to enter passwords, instructions, amounts, etc - not the easiest of things to do, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and it sets you up for the "next phase" which in the case of phone banking was voice recognition! It got you accustomed to working through "press 1 for....." kind of menu options. No one (not even youngsters) can try something for the first time and do it easily and properly without a few glitches and false starts. As you get older, you may need to try a few more times before you "get it". Trouble with some older people and tech is that they give up too quickly. Not so long ago, we bought my MIL a new TV - it was painful getting her to adapt to a different layout on the remote control - she'd get irritated when she kept pressing the wrong button and start saying she wanted to return it (or throw it out of the window). After a few days, she forgot it was even different. Same happened when she transitioned from a tape VCR recorder to a hard drive - again painful to keep explaining it to her, but she got there in the end. Same with moving her over from an old text mobile phone to a modern smart phone - again, took LOTS of practice and explaining many times, but she soon got the hang of it. Our latest achievement was getting her onto Facetime so she could talk to her grandson who lives miles away - she could never grasp how to instigate a call, but we eventually taught her how to answer one, so grandson has to facetime her, but she can answer and happily talk to him.

You really have to persevere. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle. Yes, short term there are still cash parking machines, but realistically, in a few years' time there won't be. If you don't embrace parking apps now, you'll find it harder to adapt to them in a few years' time!

But that depends on your job . My first job was in 1984 and I’ve always been paid into a bank account , as has everybody else in my family .

Or you could get her a dual set phone, the main unit plugs into the BT Jack, the secondary plugs into an ordinary three pin electric socket ( so it doesn’t run down). Panasonic are the best, we have found. No extra wiring required.

Exactly! Everyone’s circumstances are different!

Edited to add: There is so much middle class privilege on this thread, along with an assumption that everyone had professional office jobs, and could easily afford to buy a £1000+ PC in the days when it was a luxury hobby item and minimum wage was £3.60.

Even back in 1986 only 7 million workers were paid in cash, and only 3.5 million of them didn't have a bank account. That was over 40 years ago! The corresponding numbers today will be tiny!

The complete dismissal of anyone who lacked one or more of those needs is incredibly arrogant.

I agree. People seem to lack imagination, perhaps a side effect of constant internet usage?, so much so that they cannot comprehend that others have led very different lives from them and had no pressing need, even in the workplace to make use of computers.

I got my first job in 2001. We used computers then for a few basic tasks but the majority was still done on paperwork. If our computers had gone down we’d still have been able to work but if our paperwork had been destroyed in a fire then we’d have been screwed. My next job also used computers but again the majority was processed on paper.

And even then not all jobs required the use of computers.

Even back in 1986 only 7 million workers were paid in cash, and only 3.5 million of them didn't have a bank account. That was over 40 years ago! The corresponding numbers today will be tiny!

1986 was not over 40 years ago.

I know someone who doesn’t use a computer she is an evangelical Christian so possibly that is why she doesn’t have a tv either. She is a really nice normal person in all other areas. I have a friend in her late 60’s she doesn’t text or use a computer never has and not interested.i would think that you do find people over 60 unable to use a computer etc but rarely someone under 60

£25 just to make calls was expensive in those days and not many people had them at that point.

Totally agree . My late father died in 1989 and at that point we had a home computer and they also had Sky TV as soon as it came out , mainly for the cricket . So whether you had phones etc definitely depended on your family circumstances and how you were raised . I had a mobile phone as soon as they were small enough to be functional , it was a Nokia 3310 and I still have the same mobile number now .