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!

There are no homeless people where I live so it's not that. I suspect it makes it easier for them as they don't need to send someone out to empty cash from the machine. Agree it's outrageous. Don't even get me started on the fact they charge 50p.

I struggle to think of anything my mum can’t do without any tech. She says i’ve got a brain and a voice. And a paper calendar she writes everything on so no need for text reminders.
When you are in an area with lots of people same it’s probably easier as services and businesses are there for in person.
If you have lots of time it’s your home to spend as you wish.
If I’m booking a train to London I’d do online. She gets free bus to a big station, nice man helps her find best deal. Pops in M & S (girl on till will check her sparks card on iPad and add offers to card) She’s had a day out and human contact.

I live in a historical tourist city , you get people asking all the time where Is this or that which stop to get off our buses don't tell you where to get off ( trains do ) most people are helpful bus drivers will shout this is your stop, I think maybe people have started to rely on their phones too much and have stopped communicating with people and this is what's causing a problem.

I hate the fact local busses do not announce the stops. London busses do.

Only seen that recently on some new buses around here - it does make it easier but if you aren't use to it I can see why people might still ask.

I often check buses/trains not used regularly- my dyslexia has led me astray with timetables and similar names roads in past though often with trains these days it often young people asking me to be sure.

My DP are house bound and rely on internet shopping a lot - district nurses always seem surprised by this - FIL can order things but gets easily flustered - MIL point blank refuses to try yet still make fun of her own parents reluctance to have or use a phone years ago.

I think that's a very narrow view.

That's 1.6 million households though isn't it? @gdaysport

So although you can certainly expect the majority of people to be up to date with modern technology, there are still millions of people in the U.K. who don't have the internet at home 29 or so years after the internet became A Thing.

I'm 60 and have worked in office type roles for all of my career. When I was 17 I used the first memory typewriter then moved on to word processors. In the mid 80s IBM PCs/Amstrads arrived in the workplace. Since then its been a constant stream of new hardware and software which we would just learn as we went. Sometimes with training and sometimes without. Internet and email arrived in the 90s and later cloud hosted applications, iPads, smartphones and apps. For those of us that have worked in offices there would have been lots of opportunity to keep up to date with technology.

Aren't a surprising number of people functionally illiterate? Maybe they're the ones who can't read the sign on the front of the bus, at least.

Also, if you're visiting somewhere, it can be hard to know where to look for info (online or in person). It's easy when you live somewhere and know where to look.

Except that you're ironically the one being agist by bringing age into it when op didn't. She only referred to "adults" generally and the sole example in her OP that specified age explained that the women in question would have been in their 30s when the tech was introduced so DONT have age as an excuse. I don't know anyone who would think 30s or even 50s is old, the majority of people are still working part time then.

If anything op is pointing out that the usual excuse "Oh you can't expect elderly people to learn something completely new" is irrelevant because most of the people refusing to use tech ARENT old (or at least weren't when it started becoming popular).

I agree some exceptions can be made for people maybe mid 70s or older who had largely finished working when tech became essential within workplaces (or worked in sectors where it wasn't needed) but that's far from an absolute cut off -like other posters I have grandparents and great aunts who happily use ipsds and mobiles in their mid 80s and 90s. I also have an aunt in her early 60s who can't work alexa or a TV recording and who still pays her council tax in person because she doesn't trust direct debits or the internet! It's about personality not age.

Plus a lot of people have said that actually the current gen z are on average worse at basic computing than the generations above them -because they've been born into "easy tech" that does everything for them via apps they've never needed to learn the basics like very basic coding or excel spreadsheets etc.

My DMum has struggled with hospital parking apps - some aren't straight forward and she often already very tired and upset - there's frequently been a crowd all trying to work out how to pay for parking and how long it's for.

Recent travel app here drove me nuts and kept trying to get me to walk though a deserted run down unlit park area to get a bus stop - something I deemed not safe but could I can to another stop based on start location - no that was the nearest.

When we visited York last summer, the driver must have smelled us as tourists as he asked if we knew where we were going. I was pretty sure but told him anyway, and I loved the fact he yelled out that we were approaching the stop soon, and even pointed at where to get the return bus from.
If only all drivers were like that!

It is a confidence thing but it's also a knowledge thing. My dad is more confident than my mum with tech and if he knows something exists he's more likely to give it a go himself. He recently set himself up a Netflix account and we've also found out he has a "secret" Amazon account and an Amazon music account for his Alexa.

We found this out after my mum had a panic that their bank was being charged for Amazon music and none of her kids or grandkids admitted it was them. We all use Spotify and share family plans. He didn't admit it was his charge because he didn't know it was his charge. He knew that Alexa had told him he needed an Amazon music account to play music and he knew that he had "activated it" on his Amazon account but he didn't realise

there was a monthly charge.

My mum is less likely to try something she is not sure about because she worries she will accidentally break something or be defrauded but she is willing to learn with help, however, she only learns what she needs to learn because she doesn't know what is available.

We show her things we think she'll like. She can use Pinterest on the Chromebook we gave her. She can buy and download knitting patterns from Etsy. She learned Zoom and video calls over Covid but we had to explain what the Playstore was because she'd never had to use it before so she had no clue how to download Zoom. Ditto Maps, she knows she can use Google Maps in her car as a sat nav because she's seen us do it but she wouldn't know she could also use it to plan public transport routes because she's never had to do that before. It wouldn't occur to her to try to use it for that.

Up until recently she thought Spotify was something on computers because she's only ever seen it used on my PC when I've been doing her hair. She was overjoyed when she learned she could use it on her phone and download playlists to listen to in her car. It would never have occurred to her to look on her phone for music apps and no one had told her they existed.

Oh yes, google maps has on occasion led me on a massive detour because it hasn't recognised a new update to a route. Not a faultless system by far!

Kind of with you on the sentiment. Ableist as well - maybe the adult who can't read the bloody big sign, can't SEE the bloody big sign.

I'm 66. When I went to school calculators were "new technology" and if you were in the top streams you weren't allowed to choose typing for a course because you'd never need it. But I am more proficient with technology than many of our 20 year olds. Oh, they can use Tik Tok or WhatsApp yes. But can they actually use the technology for anything useful? Half of them can't. And don't even get me on the subject of the fact that they think text speak is English and suitable for reports and application forms; or can't speak on a phone to someone because they aren't used to talking to people in real life and think business is conducted by text.

There is a huge difference between knowing how to watch YouTube or send a text message and being familiar or competant with technology.

You'd be surprised at how many adults in the UK can't read and write. Not people 'from abroad', but people who 'fell through the cracks' of the educational system.

They can't use technology.

We've got friends who refuse to use any tech. They won't even have a credit card. If they need to book a hotel they have to ring the hotel and post a cheque. If they want to go to a concert we buy the tickets and they give us cash when they see us. If he goes to the bar to pay for a round and they don't take cash he can't have a drink. It's incredibly limiting. Both work in full time jobs. Both in their early sixties. Infuriating.

I know, my Uncle cannot write and has very basic reading. Worked on a building site his whole life for the same bloke. If that job goes, he knows he will struggle to find work elsewhere. Saying that, he learned how to use the smart TV and Alexa pretty quickly!
There are always exceptions to the rule which is why its also an interesting conversation to have about accessibility.

Broadly, I actually agree that tech literacy should be prioritised in the same way we prioritise regular literacy - this IS the world we live in and in the same way that people who can't read are massively disadvantaged, we need to have the same focus on tech literacy.

Having said that, one of the problems with being at the relative start of the technology journey, is that a lot of tech just doesn't work that well yet. Bus apps being a really really good example - it never ceases to amaze me that I can text the bus company for an update and, more and more, get an updated time of arrival via an app, but any kind of real time tracking or map feature that would allow me to plan a route still seems to be hit and miss and difficult to use.

Ditto parking apps - they're getting better by and large but I recently had to load up a new one for NCP and it was a disaster.

On the other hand, online shopping apps, which have received a great deal of R&D from many private companies (both the retailers themselves and third parties) are, nowadays, largely very very user friendly and intuitiveThere are also the big tech companies like Google, Amazon etc who are increasingly building platforms on which other developers can piggy back so that they can make their services easier.

Also, AI is getting smarter and better and will adapt more quickly. My brother has never really done online shopping etc, so Amazon for him is the equivalent of being dumped into the world's largest shopping mall and told to go find a pair of diamond earrings with no guidance or maps. But as he uses it, it will learn more quickly what he likes/doesn't like and in the not too distant future, he'll find it easier and easier.

Exactly. Why do you think there were protests about the railway ticket offices closing? Sometimes people need help.

Yes, again, thats why I said most, not all.

Introduced to it - by whom? In my 30s I had 4 DCs. I can assure you that no one was offering to look after my 4 DCs in order to give me a course in how to use my PC.

9 millions adults in the UK are functionally illiterate. If you can’t read then you can’t use the internet.

This is why PP mentioned courses aimed at older women who because they took time out to raise a family, missed the chance to learn a vital skill if they were unable to learn it alone. Another reason why women are often placed at a disadvantage,

what if you don't have smartphone? what if your battery is dead? what if roaming is off? what if you can't read? what if you are a stranger in the area?

My dad is almost 70 and is pretty rubbish when it comes to technology. He can do it but it doesn't come naturally to him and he'd prefer to do things over the phone.

He wasn't raised with the internet and didn't even learn how to use a computer until he had one my hand-me-downs when I left for university! He doesn't have a smart phone either, just a brick that he never turns on!

My mum on the other hand is only four years younger but used a computer at work everyday so knew how to do the basics. She had a work phone too so knew how to use one from early on.

I do think there's a big divide between people who use/used technology at work and those who didn't.