AIBU to expect the majority of adults to use technology?

[gdaysport]

The majority of UK households will have had the internet in some form for the last 20 years. We have had smartphones which have been common for at least 15 years.

AIBU to expect most adults to be able to use the internet etc to navigate the world by now?

For example, living in zone 4 London with frequent bus services, at least a few times a week there will be a bewildered adult asking the bus driver where they need to get off, if the bus (with the massive sign on front saying 'Woolwich' goes to Woolwich, or the train station. You can use google maps, TFL app, bus apps, all which tell you which way to go.

Bus drivers of course, rarely give a shiny shit and I normally step in to help and tell people where they need to go, but I just don't understand the frequency in which I need to do this?

I even extend this criticism to my own parents who have such poor technological literacy they panic at the very idea of checking what time a train leaves.

At a recent hospital stay, two women on the ward in their mid 50s with me, both of their families encouraged them to borrow and use ipads so they could watch their soaps etc to pass the time but they batted them away saying they cant use them. They would have been in their 30s when ipads were introduced. So instead they would just sit bored staring at a wall rather than be shown how to use the app.

Technology is only going to become more ingrained in our lives, should we not be encouraging people to become sufficient in using it, rather than being cut off from the world? Stranded at bus stops as they dont know where to go, not knowing how to book a GP appointment online which is quicker etc.

Preparing to be flamed!

I find it utterly bizzarre at the volume of posts on my town's Facebook page which go like this: what time is the next bus/does the chemist open/does the tip close.

So you know enough about the internet and technology to know a) facebook exists; b) that a town group exists and c) who to contact to post a message.

But not enough to google the question.

Flame me by all means but basic tech knowledge is one those things that is as fundamental as understanding how cash works. Of course there are peoole who will never be able to understand it but the "we didn't have internet in my day" excuse is just lazy.

My late grandad bless him loved technology. He's been dead for a long time now but he'd definitely have had a smartphone and the internet if he was alive today. I remember how amazing he thought his VCR was and learning to set it.

I think you will be surprised how many people have poor eyesight and lose manual dexterity to arthritis surprisingly young. And dont want to admit it. So certainly where phones are concerned, everything is small and fiddly.

I also think people are fearful. Technology used to be less user friendly and is always changing. I think some people give up and worry about breaking thing. My parents generation are in thrir 70s. Most use technology but there is a real fear of pushing the wrong button and breaking it.

Some people seem to be a technophobe. My Dad is great at technology (as a kid we had a home computer before most people had one at home). Sometimes NHS colleagues are woefully IT illiterate. Often something I don't know how to do from memory but give it a try with a few clicks and I find the answer but they seem scared to even try

I’m tempted to replace my perfectly functioning washing machine with one that is WiFi enabled just so the rest of my family can be reminded to move their washing along in a timely fashion.

My word. You certainly are obsessed with other bus passengers. Have you ever thought of reading a book? Or is that too dinosaur-y for you?

Exactly!! I don't have enough space on my phone to download several parking apps and I don't have enough data to download the apps while out and about. I think it's really wrong to expect everyone to have a smartphone. A lot of the time it needs to be a fairly new phone as well for the apps to work. What a waste!

What a load of absolute crap

It’s not necessarily about tech but literacy.

From the National Literacy Trust
16.4% (or 1 in 6) of adults in England, and 17.4% (or 1 in 5) adults in Northern Ireland, have literacy levels at or below Level 1, which is considered to be 'very poor literacy skills'.

Tech is no use to you if you can’t read or understand the information it gives you access to.

Good point made earlier: everyone should know how to read normal maps. Absolutely! Lost in a main city: there's often a map poster nearby.

There are a couple of great walking apps, absolutely brilliant. However, more than once I had no signal on my phone mid-walk. Same for other phones in my family as we usually walk together at weekends.
Backup normal map or screenshots of walk are useful. But, if course, I never remember to do this before the walk! Ih, and using these apps drains the battery really fast. We always take spare batteries now.

I am one of these people. I have never got to grips with smartphones, and I really object to being forced to use them for things that were previously easy to do, but now are not. I have some sort of anti-superpower that means things never work for me although they work fine for everyone else.
It makes me angry that I now have to pay for a smartphone to do something I used to be able to do for free.
I work in IT, ironically.

Not everyone can afford any form of smartphone at all, not even a basic one.

Much of the time, it is quicker to ask someone who should know the answer e.g. the bus driver, than faff about finding the right app, if you even have it, conduct a search, app tells you it needs updating, there is no signal etc.

If I am in an area I don't know, satnav might be able to tell me a route, but a local person might be able to give a better suggestion.

My local GP surgery has just been taken over by another group. It has been through 4 or 5 different appt booking systems in the last year. No one can keep up with which one they are meant to use. The only reliable option is to turn up in the surgery and speak to the receptionist.

I am 51 and have 2 phones, work and personal, and I also have BYOD for an out of work activity which requires me to have a separate secure email address and phone number on my personal phone. Work phone is locked down as to what I can use it for. The security settings to allow BYOD for the other account clash with other apps too so sometimes everything falls over and I am stuck.

Meh, I think the ladies in the iPad example were shouting themselves in the foot but I'm fully used to technology and as someone that doesn't use buses much, I do always find them a bit confusing and hard to figure out.

I know someone who for years resisted the smartphone.

However it got to the stage where they cannot live their lives without it because of needing to do things on apps etc.

I used to moan because it was expensive to keep in touch with them (foreign text for example rather than Whatsapp)

They got an iphone about six months ago.

Now when I work with them their nose is glued to the iphone about 75% of the time.

I agree. I don't want my phone cluttered up with various parking apps. Or to wait around while an app downloads, then having to register, sign in etc. I just want to put a coin in a machine or tap my debit card and get on with my day. There should be a choice of how to pay. Why should we just accept the method that is less work for the company involved?

I volunteer for a local charity that teaches people how to use smartphones and the like. People are welcome to book in an after class and bring specific devices.

In the past 5 years I've seen more 50 plus women coming in for the classes than any other demographic.

I find that many pensioners already know how to use their devices, they pay with their phones and generally have a lot more patience to learn new technologies. They'll come to the after class for very specific queries but they make a major effort to troubleshoot first.

I find that our main demographic of women are too afraid to make mistakes and therefore, don't try. I'm sure there is some reason for it but it always baffles me a little.

I mean, show me where I said all? You would have to be pretty dense to think my examples applied to every single person ever.

In my GP practice, we have econsult. If you send the form through, you get a callback normally the same day.

And yet when I go in for an appointment I listen to the receptionists dealing with poorly and upset people who will only or can only book appointments over the phone. If they can, they need to be taught (self or by others) how to use it.

There is an option for those unable to use econsult but you need a reason eg disability, language issues etc.

Do I think this means every single GP practice uses it? Erm...no?

I'm early 50s modern technology started with us we endured the dial up and having to ration data etc etc the Op is being am agiest arsehole I hope her next bus is late and she will get all " the old dears" bothering her 😂

My parents don't use the Internet the manage fine day to day.

I think that even though something exists it's quite possible not to have been able to afford it, have had the time to learn it, or have seen the need for it.

The internet and smart phones cost money. When my friend lost her job in the pandemic she got £75 a week in benefits. It didn't cover the essentials. let alone luxuries. Carers allowance is even less.

Eyesight is a factor too. If you don't wear prescribed glasses who looks at your retinas to detect glaucoma etc. Lots of people just buy "readers" so cataracts, glaucoma and other eye issues go undiagnosed.

Do people who have never needed to learn Excel know Excel?

Do people who aren't really interested in VR invest in the equipment and learn how to use it?

You have a point.

Sometimes the phone dies or you need the 5% that’s left to make it home.

Tech fails too. I’ve had tech completely fail me and then I’ve asked a human to help.

Example - my sat nav tells me my journey home but didn’t account for the road closures, bus diversion, where the rail replacement buses are or a diversion. In those moments (which seem to happen often with TFL and train strikes and repairs). During moments like this I might ask someone or a bus driver.

Sometimes addresses and postcodes haven’t been put onto Google maps yet so I have to use a mix of common sense or asking someone.

Tech is great but every now and then we need a human.

My surgeries booking system is shit you have to phone or go in!

imagine being so impatient that you don't have time for people Infront of you talking to an actual person.

My mil in her 70s uses technology in limited way eg can use Facebook but often locked out of things as forgets passwords and worried re scams.
My mum late 70s won’t use anything as a deliberate lifestyle choice. She stopped working late 90s. She has never needed tech for job - she was a teacher reports were handwritten. She deliberately chose not to engage with society norms - no videos in 80s, last house in street to have microwave, no broadband. It’s part snobbishness, part stubbornness. She also enjoys the personal connection. She can walk and likes talking on phone so usually can navigate a way around. She has been given a smart phone she won’t use. She misses out eg photos, messaging grandchildren and she’d be one asking bus driver but she can live her life. All her elderly neighbours are same.
For shopping she uses Iceland you go in and do shop and then delivery man brings and 10% off on a Tuesday for pensioners means it’s extremely popular- online shipping with no online.
Bank she goes in person.
Holidays she books by phone or goes in travel agent.
Rail ticket she books in person.
Gp/nurse she books by phone or in person.
Bus she looks at timetable on shelter or enquires at information.
Tradesmen word of mouth or from those local magazines they push through.

You still seem convinced that it is the majority rather than ALL - if you believe that you obviously don't know many people who can use technology when it suits them but prefer to have the option to do things the way they have always done them.

Back in the 1970s I worked in IT when a computer footprint could be the size of half a football pitch. I am no Luddite.

There are many things that can be done without using a smartphone - I can read a map and plot a journey in my head without using SATNAV!
Also consider that many people of any age cannot necessarily afford the latest Iphone and the monthly charges.
YABU to belittle those who only use a mobile for phone calls and texts.

I work with a lady, we are both within 5 years of the same age, so I’m nearly 60 and she is approaching 64.
The difference between us technology wise is vast.
I’m pretty good, online shopping, nifty at excel, uploading docs, creating groups on Teams etc etc (all pretty ‘basic’ stuff you’d think). Spend all day at work using inhouse systems and creating documents that I can edit, filter etc etc. I use an Ipad, have a decent smartphone, have online banking etc.
’Susan’ - has a 13 year old mobile phone. No other technology in the house.
Never orders online for anything. Refuses to use Teams unless someone else answers the call for her and practically puts her headphones on.
She’s simply not interested in it.
All well and good except the rest of the team find it very frustrating as we end up ‘carrying’ her to an extent, for example cannot upload documents to a shared folder from her desktop so someone else has to.
Frequent training sessions, one to one support, step by step (Dummies Guide style) notes all done for her. Nope, tries it, messes it up, cries, tantrums, etc etc. More training, nope still cannot do it. Just when we see a little bit of improvement, it’s the weekend and we’re back to square one on Mondays.
I’m really fond of her but hate to admit there is a bit of ‘I don’t want to do it’ involved.
Her background was a more manual tasked role in the office, dealing with post, filing etc, all well and good 15 years ago, now not so needed.
’

ipads have only been around since 2010 (yeah, old git here managed to Google it) so YABU in saying that someone in their 50s has had that technology for 20 years because they have only been mainstream for about 10 years. Not everyone is comfortable or likes technology and there should be an alternative, ie, talking to a real-life person. As we all age it will actually become more difficult to use technology and this needs to be considered.