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.

No it doesn’t. There are millions of people who don't have any access to the internet and yet still manage to function. Talk about ageist!

My DF would be late 80s if he was alive, he left school at about 14 and worked in a factory all his life so would never have used a computer in all that time

Also cyber security is difficult to keep up to date on - my DM has been caught out by scammers a couple of times and realised just in time. She's not stupid, they're just sophisticated these days and she doesn't do regular cyber security training at work! My dad doesn't do the internet or mobile phones so thinks it's like the wild West online from the consumer stuff he sees on tv and in his paper. He'd much rather see someone in person or talk to someone on the phone.

My ex in laws are like this. Refuse to use internet for anything, think they’re going to have all their money stolen if they buy anything online or use internet banking. They are in their 80s and very capable otherwise - they manage texting and FaceTime but that’s it. They would rather drive a 65 mile round trip to their nearest city and bank to do anything.

Honestly my mum is 87 and uses email, has a smart phone, uses WhatsApp, FB etc.

Honestly I wish she didn't. She watches all the scam programmes on TV and is fully aware of the issue of fake emails, texts etc but can't really spit them in real life. She doesn't understand Google and will just click on the first result in the list and doesn't check whether it's actually what she wants.

Recently I've had to sort some site she'd signed up to, thinking she was renewing her road tax, and narrowly avoided some random coming to give fire safety advice rather than someone from the fire brigade.

Thank goodness she doesn't do online banking.

My MIL just about emails, but has such bad arthritis that she can barely manage a laptop keyboard, and really can't manage a smartphone.

That’s not the title of the thread though is it? And I think based on that it’s exactly the point,

my parents in their late 80s (one deceased) never did, so they fall into the question.

I worked for the main telecoms company all my life and was heavily involved in the internet when it first came out, not a problem for me. Now in my late fifties, I still use Excel every day but I really can’t be arsed with learning new functions when they’re developed because what I am competent with works for me and I don’t need anything else.

my life wouldn’t be enhanced by learning further.

My DPs are 85+.

They didn't embrace the new stuff when it came out as they didn't need to, they could do everything they needed the old ways. They tried and in fact owned a PC before we did but never got confident.
But as time has moved on lots of the old ways are no longer available (eg no phone directories, yellow pages, bank branches, paper letters, people sticking to appointments). So now they can't work smart mobile phones, and generally can't get google to come up with useful answers.

So they do emails and online grocery orders (learned for covid). I give my mobile as contact for businesses, GP, etc, and manage NHS apps, online banking etc. DH orders amazon things for them.

My mum could never get the hang of a mobile phone or the internet, she seemed scared of the technology.

Elderly people are more likely to be scammed on line or via smartphone. I have had numerous scam texts regarding parcels, winter fuel allowance etc. I can spot they are scams immediately but an elderly person might not.

When I was younger (I am 60 now) I knew all the latest gadgets and could keep up with technology. Now I find that technology is advancing at such a fast rate that I'm finding it hard to keep up. For people in their 70s and 80s I can understand why they are reluctant to have smart phones/Internet.

Because people are different. 90 year old mum is fully internet switched on, does banking, smart TV, books holidays, researchs stuff, etc. SIL50 and BIL55 hardly even use their phones, don't use timer switches for heating/lighting, think social media is still just for sharing pictures of meals & kids, total luddites. There's room for everyone, it makes the world go around

Interestingly my MIL, who would have been 92 has she still been alive (died at 90) worked in a factory that made chips for computers for many years, but she never used a computer in her job, never had one at home, didnt have a smartphone. She still managed to live independently for 90 years.

Well believe it because you're wrong if you think that no one under 90 won't have used a computer!

Kids were exposed to computers at primary school before they were commonplace in very many workplaces. It wasn't until the 90s that desktop computers became the norm and even then a lot of places would only have one or two key people with a computer, not on every desk.

If someone was in a manual job they had no need for a computer at work so once they retired why would they then go to the expense and hassle of getting one? Access to the internet wasn't straightforward and none of the software was as intuitive as it is now. If you didn't feel you needed it why would you bother?

I only really got to grips with computers because I had a husband who was into them, and who I could call on to guide me and sort me out when I hit problems trying to use one at home.

Many people did not use computers at work (and some of those who did were only using them at point of sale in a retail setting or similar).

It was a very new and complex world trying to learn to use them at home, at, say, 40 and massively different from learning organically at school.

The way using a computer developed back in the day, was so rapid. What you learned one week would be redundant a month later because the software had changed.

You simply cannot compare the learning environment for middle aged and older adults in the 90s, with children learning it alongside everything else at school.

It's all quite expensive as well if you aren't that interested, around £30 for broadband, £10 for SIM card contract/payg, £200 upwards for phone, £400 upwards for computer/ipad. Obviously you can find cheaper if you seek it out but it all adds up

Online grocery orders are much more complicated than buying things from Amazon!

And massively more expensive at the time when they could have been learning. So this stuff is very much cheaper, relatively, then it was back then.

My mum has kept up really well and made it a priority as she didn't want to get isolated. but the app for everything is tipping her over the edge. She has cataracts so can't see them well and terrible arthritis so can't click things easily. She has to leave voice messages as she can't type at all now.

Her face drops if you go somewhere and they say download the app to order or book.

It isn’t though is it. They have to rely on other people to do things for them, and it’s only going to get worse. My parents don’t do the internet, even though dad has an iPhone (it’s an old one my sister gave him). I have to drive them to any new places even though they have a car and are both capable of driving it because they don’t know the way and won’t use the perfectly serviceable sat nav on Dads phone.

@BobnLen my late father in law would be in his 90s if he was still alive. He too left school at 14 and worked manual factory jobs his whole life - but he had access to computers via his children (they were coming into adulthood in the 1980s) and through his grandchildren (all born from 2000s onwards).
He didn't have his own computer, email address or anything - but he had access and the opportunity to use computers if he needed too.
@SensibleSigma I worked in retail. From the 1990s most shop tills were essentially a computer. Price tickets were printed via a computer which sales assistants had to do. I worked with several women who will be in their 80s and 90s now.
My mum (age late 70s now) worked on the photographic department of Boots. When she retired (2007) the department was pretty much all computers and digital printing.

I have Facebook but rarely use it. People who are my friends have my phone number and we text/WhatsApp and keep in touch that way, meet in person for coffee.

Interesting thread! I am in my 50’s and very comfortable using technology/apps/whatever - at work and home.

But I have no idea how anything works - I have Sharepoint sites at work, Teams Channels, a Google Docs site for a hobby I do, Apple ID blah blah blah

But I literally have no idea what is going on - it’s like I instinctively know how to log into these things and my laptop has saved all my log in details but I can’t picture in my head the background organising system (if that makes sense!) so I get very confused with the myriad of work “profiles” and personal “profiles” and if my laptop didn’t store the log ins I would be screwed!

So I can imagine that for older people it is a similar feeling but x10 - it is very complicated these days - it isn’t really “basic” internet and email anymore!

One of my PIL fell for a scam and they are now terrified of the internet no matter how much we try to support them.

@HotCrossBunplease Yes in some ways. But doing a weekly Tesco order once set up (and DB did it for them for quite a while) is buying known things from a known site with a known delivery time.

Amazon you have to choose the most suitable item. It is the research and knowing what to get that can be very hard. Whereas with our system, we agree they need something, and then we research and order the most suitable thing, then tell them when it is arriving/arrived.`

My mum happily orders from Sainsbury's because she trusts them.
She doesn't use Amazon because she knows there are scams.....

MIL early 70s, never used a computer, has a basic mobile with no internet, does not have internet at home, doesn't need it, has never had to use it

Now, if my grandpa had still been alive it would have been a different story, he and my gran took computer courses back in the early 90s, when they were retired in their 60's, he would have had the upto date computer (to be fair he would probably have had a go at building his own) internet, the mobile, the whole shebang, streaming the TV, he was always fascinated by technology and gadgets

I suppose it's personal preference, if you don't need it don't use it