Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

older adults and technology

151 replies

perditaplum · 18/12/2020 17:45

What it is about older adults and technology? When do they change from being able to use technology like setting things up, playing games on things like the playstation and so on to it all being incomprehensible to them and asking younger people to do it for them ? They were younger people once and got asked to do it by older adults then!

OP posts:
HarrietSchulenberg · 18/12/2020 18:22

I am 50. In my teens and 20s I could set anything up as I had the time to work it out. Since having children I became time-poor and couldn't take 2 hours to study a manual or do trial and error.
I now, frankly, just CBA so don't buy anything complicated. If it's not "plug in and go" or near as dammit it can stay in the shop.

BackforGood · 18/12/2020 18:32

I'm an older adult too...so not ageist, just what I see around me with people my age - including myself. I used new technology all the time when I was younger but so people my age just say it's too complicated. I remember my parents doing it when I was a teen and now I oftenoccasionally find myself doing it.

How do you remember your parents doing it when you were a teen ?
All the 'technology' we have wasn't around then, if you are older than me. Confused

nokidshere · 18/12/2020 18:36

It's exactly the same as being able to make a coffee. I've always known how to do it, I'm perfectly able and capable of doing it but why would I even bother when I have teenagers to do it for me Grin

ErrolTheDragon · 18/12/2020 18:36

In two weeks I'll be a presumably mind-numbing combination of 60 and still blonde....I possibly might not be arsed to set up my new phone because DH is happy to do it (but frankly wtf is there to set up other than putting in the WiFi password and turning off all the annoying stuff? ). I've got to learn Python and get into machine learning to do some scientific predictions. Much more fun. Setting up 'tech' is literally child's play.

Meowchickameowmeow · 18/12/2020 18:37

Define older adult.

speakout · 18/12/2020 18:38

It's exactly the same as being able to make a coffee. I've always known how to do it, I'm perfectly able and capable of doing it but why would I even bother when I have teenagers to do it for me

Totally!
I never take out garbage- OH is always there to do it. I am physically able , it just looks, well, so complicated.....

Duanphen · 18/12/2020 18:48

I've wondered this one myself. While my brother and I used the computer as kids, and set it up, I don't recall my parents being technophobes, but once we'd left home my mother literally quit her job rather than touch a computer and they both refuse to text. They're only 60 and in good health, so I'm baffled as to why they act like doddery croaky babies.

picklemewalnuts · 18/12/2020 18:51

I'm over 50 and definitely feel ambivalent about tech now. I'm fine with my iPad, phone, laptop.

I'm much more resistant to updates than I was- I can't find things that have moved as easily as I used to.

The things that don't need to be messed with often- echo- I let D.C. manage.

The tv- life is too short, far far too short to stay on top of which remote, which channel, how to record, where different channels are, streaming etc. It changes too often.

I'd rather read a book.

Those of you angrily assuring us age has nothing to do with it, well that's nice for you! Age has definitely impacted my ability to process and retain information. I no longer bother with inessentials, I just don't have the capacity.

DramaAlpaca · 18/12/2020 18:58

I'm over 50. I'm comfortable using technology, I set up my new laptop and mobile phone and I grasp new software programs at work more quickly than some of my younger colleagues.

Whether I can be bothered with new stuff depends on how much I want to use the technology. If I do I'll sort it out, if not I won't. It's nothing to do with my age.

ErrolTheDragon · 18/12/2020 18:59

I suppose I do sometimes have problems with my phone - but only if I can't find my glasses. Longsightedness, which comes to most of us, may be a factor in CBA'ness.

And sometimes it's because I don't find all of apple's UI paradigms intuitive. I do quite a lot of UI design for applications inherently a hell of a lot more complicated so I suppose I may be a bit too opinionated. Grin

ErrolTheDragon · 18/12/2020 19:09

And I dislike the downgrading of the word 'technology' to apparently just mean consumer electronics and apps.

Original poster
perditaplum · 18/12/2020 19:20

@BackforGood

I'm an older adult too...so not ageist, just what I see around me with people my age - including myself. I used new technology all the time when I was younger but so people my age just say it's too complicated. I remember my parents doing it when I was a teen and now I oftenoccasionally find myself doing it.

How do you remember your parents doing it when you were a teen ?
All the 'technology' we have wasn't around then, if you are older than me. Confused

Video recorders and video cameras and so on, I remember being asked to set them up when they got older and got new ones. When I first got the internet at home (my home, I'd left home by then) in the earlier 90s they were confused by it.
OP posts:
LondonBus38 · 18/12/2020 19:25

Tech changes too fast for them to catch up

Leaannb why? Why would it take me longer to catch up than it takes my teenagers?

Leaannb · 18/12/2020 19:31

@LondonBus38

Tech changes too fast for them to catch up

Leaannb why? Why would it take me longer to catch up than it takes my teenagers?

The same reason why it takes me longer. They aren't playing catch up. We are in a lot of cases
Nanny0gg · 18/12/2020 19:32

[quote Leaannb]@NannyOgg...Not offensive bbollucks but anecdotal proof by myself and others on this thread. As people get older many are unable to keep up with all the technological advances. Its life.....[/quote]
'Anecdotal proof'??

There's an oxymoron...

Leaannb · 18/12/2020 19:33

@perditaplum....For me it was always programming the VCR to record when we were away. That I could do and still can.Turning on the crap in the media room is a whole different ballgame

Leaannb · 18/12/2020 19:34

@NannyOgg...Maybe but its quite rampant on this thread alone. You are really taking offense when there is none meant. Its extremely common

Sennetti · 18/12/2020 19:34

does it matter?

Nanny0gg · 18/12/2020 19:35

@picklemewalnuts

I'm over 50 and definitely feel ambivalent about tech now. I'm fine with my iPad, phone, laptop.

I'm much more resistant to updates than I was- I can't find things that have moved as easily as I used to.

The things that don't need to be messed with often- echo- I let D.C. manage.

The tv- life is too short, far far too short to stay on top of which remote, which channel, how to record, where different channels are, streaming etc. It changes too often.

I'd rather read a book.

Those of you angrily assuring us age has nothing to do with it, well that's nice for you! Age has definitely impacted my ability to process and retain information. I no longer bother with inessentials, I just don't have the capacity.

I'm nearly bloody 70 and I am sick of being patronised and having my head patted because I'm too 'old' to cope with this that and the other.

It's nothing to do with age it's to do with interest.

One of my DC absolutely refuses to do any more than they have to. Perfectly capable but leaves it to their partner.

So if their partner isn't around, who sorts it? I do.

ProudAuntie76 · 18/12/2020 19:40

With my parents, insensitive, uneducated idiots make an assumption that it’s laziness, stinginess, fear etc and will roll their eyes and ask “have you ever thought of learning?” patronisingly when they explain they can’t use a smartphone or do online banking etc.

In reality one has had several strokes and the other has vascular damage due to diabetes. So their brains really struggle with certain things although they look fitter, healthier and younger than they are.

I’m just relieved they aren’t slaves to their phones or iPads like the rest of my family!

Ghostlyglow · 18/12/2020 19:40

Failing eyesight (and not being arsed to get/wear the right glasses) plays a big part I think.

melodypondisasuperhero · 18/12/2020 19:40

I don't know but something does happen! I don't think I'll qualify as an older adult at 31, but it struck me the other day that as a young teen I had to teach my mum how to use her new phone (she was early 40s I guess) and it seemed ridiculously easy at the time. I can't use DH's phone now, I just get confused because it's different to mine!

sosotired1 · 18/12/2020 19:41

My mum did a computer course in her later sixties which means now in her later 70's and on her own she can use a computer, watch TV on it, look at photos of us, read the papers, research things etc. I am so proud of her for doing this (no previous technical interest or skill at all but she realised it was an important skill). Her only slightly older sisters wouldn't touch tech which was very sad (and ended up contributing to loneliness etc.)

CakeRequired · 18/12/2020 19:44

I think in most cases its just laziness to be honest.

Think of all of the things you've been able to learn, through your job, through life. You can work a washing machine, dishwasher, turn the boiler on etc. Yet pressing buttons on a remote for a tv is too hard? Read words in settings is too complicated? It's all pretty self explanatory now, there's no jargon involved in the basics. It's not like you are being asked to build a computer or set up a network. I know people twice my age who can build a computer from scratch and manage massive networks easily.

For some people, it will be stupidity, being blunt but it will be. For some, it's health issues, like early onset dementia. For anyone free from both and has no issues at all with their mental state? Laziness. You just can't be assed to learn it and would either get someone else to do it or keep things simple. That's fair enough, but don't blame technology for it. Apple even give you crappy childish icons that look like the thing you want to go to, like a calender, to make it easier for you.

rslsys · 18/12/2020 19:46

I'm 65, retired after 40 years in IT.
I'm bloody sick of my children and grandchildren asking me to set up and troubleshoot their tech!
Work it out yourselves! We had to - no manuals or Youtube when I started out in the 'wild west' days.