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!

What if people do not read my OP where it states most, not all?

What if what if what if what if

I KNOW.

I think that's slightly over stating things. the UK has an adult literacy level of 99% according to the gov.uk website. With a population of 67mn or so, that's a lot less than 1 mn illiterate adults.

not that any adults should be illiterate, 9 mn adults is not accurate.

This is why my dad didn't know he was being charged for Amazon Music. He can read and write but he learned as an adult and struggles a lot with it. He uses messenger and can read and reply to messages from us but it takes him a long time. If he's confronted with a wall of text his immediate reaction is "I can't read that," so he doesn't try.

I agree this is willed. My father is 84 and is technologically literate. It's a choice that will get harder and harder.

Also, you can't eliminate a spot of attention seeking. Some people hate technology because they get less of it

Some of the 'facts' OP has stated are nonsense, certainly about the prevalence of the internet and smartphones in particular years.

I don't understand what's wrong with people asking where to get off a bus either. What on earth is wrong with that? I'm more than competent technologically, but I'd ask that question. And if someone asked me, I'd happily answer, and probably have a bit of a chat too. Much more life enhancing then looking at your phone all day

The thing is, if she'd bothered to get "into" tech 10 or 20 years ago, she'd have almost certainly be fine with it and cope.

I think far too many people have just ignored what was obviously going to happen.

After all, cheap "home" computers appeared as early as 1980 (ZX80), so that's over 40 years ago. Computers became widespread in workplaces in the late 1980s. TV remotes became common around the same time, as did digital home appliances such as microwaves, cookers, dishwashers, etc.

Someone 78 today was only 35 when home computers started appearing, as did TV computer games, TV remotes, etc. What rock have they been hiding under for the past 40 years?

My MIL is a case in point. She can't even use a TV remote, is incapable of using anything "digital" at all, needs a microwave and oven etc with dials rather than buttons. She's not even as old as the OP! She regards "hating" electronic things like some kind of demented badge of honour. As time is passing, she expects the benefits of the digital age, but expects "someone else" to actually press the buttons for her!

Because Google never gets it wrong. It once directed me to a bus stop only for the driver to tell me the bus I need is on the other side. I'm not familiar with that area of the city so wouldn't have known Google was correct or not.

So you have a personal example of someone who can't browse the internet.

That's because of not being able to read.

Many others never were able to afford to get online, then felt they had missed the boat.

If you know one, and extrapolate that most people also know at least one person like that, then you can see that there are enormous chunks of the population who cannot access the internet either for financial or literacy reasons.

I think there are probably a few different measures. The national literacy trust says 7 million in england have very poor literacy skills.

I guess there is a gap between illiterate and poor skills. It says these people can understand short, straightforward texts on familiar topics and sources but unfamiliar sources, topics and longer info causes problems.

My son is like this.. he is not illiterate, but he has difficulties.

I've also seen an element of willful ignorance around me, e.g. friends who have managed to learn the things that they enjoy such as keeping up with family on Instagram or online shopping, but as soon as something more mundane comes up, like filling out an online form, it's suddenly "I don't know how to use the Internet/ I'm too old to learn these new things now".

Twice last month, DS went to different cities by train (places he'd never been to before) for work meetings/courses. On the way back, complete shambles in railway stations, first due to a broken down train, second due to bad weather stopping the trains. Some trains were running, others weren't - he hadn't a clue whether it was better to get on "any" train heading in the general direction and change somewhere, or whatever. If he'd relied on train staff to tell him how to get home, he'd probably have had to sleep on the streets overnight. There were huge queues for the ticket office, rail staff in the concourse hadn't a clue when he asked them how to get home - they just shrugged and said they didn't know!

He found a quiet corner, and Googled, He brought up station destination boards which showed which were running from other various "big" stations, checked the real time trains website to try to gauge where the blockages were, and managed to pick a way through it all, googled for which train companies were accepted tickets from other operators, etc. Once he'd worked out a plan of action, he got himself home, and not too badly delayed, just a couple of hours.

No amount of waiting in huge queues and constantly trying to find train staff who could actually give him some information would have produced a better outcome. Some of his colleagues who'd gone to the same places ended up having to stay overnight in hotels because they had trouble finding train staff to ask and were told duff information. It was only that DS is a train spotter that he knew all the various apps and websites available!

@gdaysport that pp was me . The course I'm doing was organised by women who realised, via the NextDoor app that there was a need for it.

Why didn't your son share the information with his colleagues?

They weren't in contact. He didn't know their mobile phone numbers. He works for a big firm and he only knew most of them by "nodding" sight. They didn't actually work "together" as in the same room or adjoining offices.

Your OP is talking about different issues though. If a person is unable to figure out that the Woolwich bus is going to Woolwich, that’s nothing to do with refusing to engage with technology.

If you weren't working in an office environment, then you obviously got left behind. I have a friend who was out of the workplace for 20 years and only managed to get back in by taking computing and other classes to update her skills.

Oh come off it, people in general had very very little access to tech 40 years ago!!! I know, I was there! I worked in London in the late 80s for what was then one of the 'big five' - we had email but very many organisations had no access to tech. When I moved jobs out of London, and went into the public sector, there were very basic information systems, and no email - that was in the early- mid 90s!!

The bus driver put the wrong location on the bus once. It said it was going to my towns hospital. The bus stopped in my towns bus station. I asked the bus driver why have we stopped, it said Hospital. He said he put the wrong one. I used to judge people asking the bus driver where the bus is going despite it clearly saying on the outside. No I don't. I find the bus app rubbish as well.

my dad is in his 60s and can't use a computer. Luckily with an iPhone he can send messages. But before iPhone, as children we had to reply to texts for him. I hate how everything is online. When you'd go to the hospital for a blood test you'd pick up a ticket and wait to be called. Now you've got to book it online and it's annoying.

Yabu.

Public transport apps are glitchy and clunky, mobile data is patchy across the UK (including in London - pretty much every time I listen to radio 4 there will be at least one call dropped), and when you're out and about on the go especially in an unfamiliar city (London gets a lot of visitors) it's much quicker and easier to just ask a question face to face and get an answer.

Technology is supposed to be a tool, not an instruction to end all in person interaction.

Yes you are being unreasonable. Some of us look at the young, glued to their phones, as they sit in groups or at dinner, and think how sad! Some of us see the artificially enhanced photos people post of themselves, and think how delusional! Some of us don't do social media, because we don't want to look at/"like" endless photos of children and grandchildren we don't know, because our purpose is not to bolster the egos of other people with too much time on their hands. And everyone's eyesight deteriorates in their 40's. So smartphones - even enlarging text - are frustratingly inconvenient. Not to mention tiny keyboards for our arthritic fingers. But I'm sure technology will evolve to cater for older people. But hey, I have intelligent tech-happy young people who look at my android smartphone and don't have a clue how it works if I ask a question.

Ime young folk can be surprisingly limited in using tech - a lot of them don't know how to google what they're specifically looking for, for eg. They might be on their phones a lot but they don't always explore very much. It's often us old dinosaurs - who entered a tech-less workplace, had technology creep onto our desks and had to find a way to make it work for us, mainly without training - that are more inclined to get a bit creative.

I've sometimes freaked when out because my phone has died or because I've run out of data so I can't use the apps I need. It might not always be lack of ability to understand the tech.

I have an older family member who asks me to fix her phone for her every so often as she somehow moves apps around the home screen on to extra pages, sometimes there will be blank "home pages" and then a random app on a page and then two more further across etc. She duplicates apps as well. I don't know how she does it and she swears blind she doesn't do anything! She gets confused by all the accounts, so she has Google and Samsung account as has an android, and she can't really understand the difference very well, like when Samsung said she'd lose her cloud files she thought she would lose all her photos. I had to explain she only has her Samsung photos on her phone, not the Samsung cloud, and all her photos back up automatically to her Google photos cloud, so she didn't need to worry. I still don't think she really understand what I'm saying. She's never used a laptop but is open to a tablet for browsing for the larger screen. Her husband uses the laptop and does all the stuff on there.

I think you're either interested in technology or you're not. One family member in her 80s can't use a mobile phone. She wouldn't know where to start with online banking or sending an email. But another who's almost 90 is perfectly capable of doing all these things.

I can do what I need to do... but wouldn't know how to order an Uber or use ringing as I've never needed to. Does that make me not able to use technology? No, of course not. I just use the technology I need to make my life easier.

@mayorofcasterbridge (great novel!) thank you. I feel vindicated by this thread. I feel OP is BU, but also agree with PPs who point out that some people are more interested &/or have a greater affinity with technology than others. I feel it's part of the different intelligences debate. My husband is tech savvy, but can't get his head around putting the duvet cover on from inside out.