To wonder why learning new things becomes more difficult when you're older?

[EllaMinnowPee]

I'm not ancient but I'm older I suppose. Recently turned 50

Anyway, I've just taken on a new job. I'm self employed so do work for people.

On the one hand I can do this job as it's in my field but on the other hand, I'm literally paralysed by fear because it involves me having to learn new things - mainly tech related! I don't, for example, create images and I don't know one end of a spreadsheet from another but I need to be able to do these things.

I know I can do it but Jesus Christ, why does it seem like such a mountain to climb? I put it down to never having used a computer when at school (we had a computer room but let's face it, not like kids know it these days!)

Does age hold you back and if not, how do you overcome the overwhelming task of learning alien things?

How as a recently turned 50 year old have you never encountered a spreadsheet before?

[quote EllaMinnowPee]@SwanShaped it's a fear of getting it wrong and yep, not being good at it. [/quote]
Yes I think fear is a thing as well. I can remember looking at my son when he was about 5 and doing stuff on the computer, we were homeschooling and did lots on the computer. He's do something and walk in to his dad and say, "I think I've wiped the hard drive" and sure enough dad would have to install everything again. He was fearless if a bit of a nightmare. Then I'd go into work and was training staff to use word processors and if they thought they'd touched the wrong key they'd recoil like they'd got an electric shock.

Fear is a real barrier.

Spreadsheets are so useful and can do a lot of work for you. Once you get the hang of them (and you will!), you'll wonder how you managed without them. There are lotsof free resources and tutorials online.

The main thing when learning tech is to let go of the idea that it should be obvious.

To learn how to use spreadsheets, take a few short courses and follow the steps actually in the application. Don't just watch videos. And then repeat those courses while you're doing your work to embed it. Don't just open Excel or Google Sheets and click around aimlessly.

Take a course! There are loads of free ones: applieddigitalskills.withgoogle.com/c/middle-and-high-school-uk/en-uk/plan-and-budget/overview.html

@TearifficTaz well... for example, maybe I work filling shelves in a supermarket. Maybe I'm a waitress. I could be a taxi driver. There are so so many professions that mean that a person may never have encountered a spreadsheet before. Your experience of life isn't my experience of life and vice versa.

Now as it happens, I don't work in those fields and I said in my op, I pay others to do the stuff I feel I can't

@lomoloko great idea. Thank you. Because I absolutely would open up a spreadsheet and click around aimlessly

@ancientgran well that's giving me hope. My mum was almost 70 when she died the other year - she would never have been able to navigate Mumsnet, let along post on it

This is why they have continuous development. So you do not get left behind. So you do not forget how to study. There are loads of cheap/ free courses and YouTube/ Khan Academy etc. If you do a course or two a year, not only are you more employable, but you don’t feel like a dinosaur in new jobs

I hate learning IT and I really hate having to attend 'helpful' webinars for my job so I can understand how the complicated software works.

But... I have two languages on the go on Duolingo because I bloody love learning languages; it's just a huge word game as far as I'm concerned.

And my hobby is photography, so I can spend hours and hours learning how to use editing software for artistic purposes.

It's not age, it's interest. As it was when I was a child.

@BeringBlue

I hate learning IT and I really hate having to attend 'helpful' webinars for my job so I can understand how the complicated software works.

But... I have two languages on the go on Duolingo because I bloody love learning languages; it's just a huge word game as far as I'm concerned.

And my hobby is photography, so I can spend hours and hours learning how to use editing software for artistic purposes.

It's not age, it's interest. As it was when I was a child.

I think that's the key thing, also what @ancientgran said -- it's whether you want to learn something new. My mother is in her late 70s, never worked outside the home, and never laid so much as a finger on a computer, ever. She would have had no reason to, and is deeply tech-averse.

Yet she's now pretty competent with turning on a PC, using the internet etc, just in the last couple of years, purely because, rather than buying the local papers for death announcements, she can go straight to RIP.ie and see it all in one place. Plus being able to watch Mass online during lockdown while she was shielding was a godsend to her. She learned because it had measurable benefits for her.

I could have written your post. I am a bit older and have just started a Learn Direct course on Word. God, I hate it. It literally makes me cry. I haven't used computers for work for nearly 20 years. I used to train new recruits on our computer system. Now, I simply cannot retain the information. I am fortunate my son is helping me, otherwise I would have thrown the towel in. I am not going to give up, but I am finding it so, so difficult.

I'm 55 ..learning new things brings me out in sweats .

[quote EllaMinnowPee]@ancientgran well that's giving me hope. My mum was almost 70 when she died the other year - she would never have been able to navigate Mumsnet, let along post on it [/quote]
Glad to help.

I started a new job when we moved when my children were young. My DD was 7, she takes after her dad and loves tech, always has. She's also very bright. So I started this job, about 30 years ago, and they'd just got some computers but no one could do much on them. They needed to set up some spreadsheets, data bases etc. So I'd listen to what they needed, go home and get the 7 year old to show me how to do it and go back into work the next day and wow them with my knowledge.

I confessed when I retired a few years ago and everyone found it really funny. They were all very good on computers by then.

Well it's surely true that our brains absorb and retain new things less easily as we get older, isn't it? But I think maybe it's also a 'use it or lose it' thing. If you keep on learning new things, you probably stay better at it for longer.

I love learning new stuff. I've been teaching myself Spanish and am at about A Level standard now (I teach other languages, so it's a bit easier for me!). I also learned knitting and crochet in my late 30s (now 50) and am always learning new techniques in those.