To find people who refuse to embrace technology irritating?

[Sophiehoney]

I don't mean people who genuinely struggle

I am irritated with people who absolutely refuse to even try.
I am sure a lot of the time they do it on purpose. They use the whole "I don't do technology" thing as a personality trait, to be quirky and "not like all you young people" when simply being a bit older is not a reason in itself, as Mumsnet proves!!

People at my work are moaning like hell because the system of filling in patients notes at the end of the shift in a book with a pen has been replaced by handheld devices (basically phones) that are more secure and can be completed on the go. They are so simple but some people are refusing to learn so others are filling their notes in for them.

A lady at the doctor's today point blank refused to even try to sign herself in on the machine. It was literally just a case of pressing a button and then filling in a form with her name and DOB using a keyboard. She declared proudly "I'm not doing this, I don't do technology, I don't even have a mobile phone!" And made he poor stressed receptionist with a line of people waiting come out and do it for her.

My mum will pop round a million times a week with "something she needs me to on her iPad" and it's usually just something trivial like reading an email and sending a one line reply that I know she is capable of. I've stated getting my 13 year old to do and she pays him £1 every time so every cloud 🤷

But these people do irritate me when they expect others to pick up their slack by refusing to try.

AIBU?

The issue is that things that used to be one step are now ten steps and it’s exhausting. Especially when you can remember how much simpler it all used to be!

If people don’t want to use technology that’s fine, but they shouldn’t then choose to use a firm that does everything through an online portal, there are plenty of high street firms they can use but they don’t want to because they’re more expensive, they don’t appreciate that we’re only cheaper because of the technology.

I'm just glad I'm old so I don't have to live through this much longer.

I used to work for a bank and the amount of people who seemingly couldn’t put their debit card into the ATM the correct way round was astonishing. No problem using the chip and pin machines in M&S or Waitrose though where they also had to put their cards in the exact same way. Most just did it to be awkward.

"Preferring to use "paper" such as calendars etc is just personal preference and not refusing to engage with technology, and of course don't affect anyone else."

It can affect other people e.g. people working in teams where one person has to make appointments for them all, but one of them has an appointment on paper they didn't transfer or someone you can't invite via a calendar because they don't have an e-calendar. Also an e-calendar gives you reminders whereas a paper one doesn't so it you forget you were meeting a friend, the friend suffers. There are so many examples on here of people 'forgetting' they were meeting up with someone that just wouldn't happen if they used a calendar properly.

I do hate two-step verification e.g. I can't get into my email without a pin number sent to my mobile, but it's my old mobile so I can't get the message and I can't link that email to my new mobile because I can't get in...

Yes, me. I can deal with my home printer (very gently) and my huge office printer. I am late 50s.

That's got nothing to do with resilience either.

You're cheaper because they're doing the work themselves!

It's the correct word though

I personally enjoy computers technology etc etc

but years ago a lot of people said Mary on big brother was mad because she believed that a phone was telling government where you were. She was correct.

We go into Tesco, and we do our own till work so there isn’t a need for staff.

we go to the doctors, we type in our date of birth and it tells our record whether we were early or late, and we have Tony Blair and his son on the cusp of making billions by a digital passport which will collect every scrap of data about you, it will know where you bank, shop, games u play, sites u visit everything and I mean everything!

Maybe we are the stupid ones for embracing technology and those who haven’t/won’t are the truly clever ones

Yes, it irritates me. I have two older (past retirement age) workers in my team and their resistance to anything new is almost a joke at this stage. We’re currently replacing everyone’s machines with faster more streamlined versions and the DRAMA about it. They are too busy grumbling to actually stop and listen to what they’re being told (which is, nothing will change for you day to day). One of them told me ‘it’s ok for you, you’re into computers’. I don’t even own a laptop and DH takes care of all tech in our home, but I do get on board with what I’m required to in order to effectively do my job. The owner of our company is approaching 80 and fully across all the new tech. Weirdly they don’t use the same excuses to him…

That said, I do get it when people are retired and don’t have the need for tech in their lives day to day, forcing things like parking payment apps is unfair. But if you still want or need to work, you need to at least try to embrace it!

@Sophiehoneythe people at your place of work who are refusing to use the new systems would have their cards marked if I was their Manager. The people helping them are daft, and should leave them to get on with it.

But there is no reason why you can’t learn new things when you’re retired. Also, it’s good for your brain to learn something different.

Well of course, but there’s (theoretically) less of an incentive to keep up if you’re not required to keep up for a salary.

About 6 million adults in UK have serious literacy issues and struggle with tasks like reading or completing forms. How to they tick the box to say they understand the ToC or read the instructions about using an App. There's a reason we need human interaction to support us in tasks. When you 'only have to electronically sign' a box there is always a paragraph saying something above where you sign.

But why worry if everybody can read it or understand, just get a fecking move on, it's no fecking big deal to electronically complete the document, just do it and get out of the way. Illiterate people mask to avoid judgement, they don't want to announce in a waiting room they can't read the declaration or sign their name. They just sign and live with the fact they don't know what has been communicated to them.

The entitlement of technology underpinning basic functions, is increasingly marganalising those that have already been failed and disadvantaged.

For us it's head wrecking and frustrating, for them it can become life limiting. But who cares, not our problem if they can't understand the text on the App on how to pay for parking. It's their problem.

That's just another example of how technology has fundamentally repositioned how we interact as humans. We all know there are plenty more examples of technology resetting the pillars that support our society.

It’s not just that, although yes if someone sends us a pile of papers we have to pay someone to open the envelope, find out who they’re for, sort them, scan them and then file them and we have to pay for the space and equipment to store them, whereas if they scan them to the portal from home they are automatically sent to the right person who can deal with them immediately, the customer can keep their important documents at home so there’s no chance of them going missing in the post or them saying I sent you x document and us saying it wasn’t in the envelope and they get annoyed because they think we’ve lost it and we then have to get copies or persuade them to resend it. It’s also quicker, we work on a set fee rather than a per hour price and what a lot of people don’t grasp is that when you’re working on a set fee you need to get through the work quickly so you can take on more work to make a profit, using a portal means work can be completed more quickly.

Basically technology has benefits but if you don’t want to use the technology you shouldn’t expect to benefit from it.

Or give jobs to delivery drivers by having your shopping delivered

My dad is 76 and pretty good with tech if slow (he holds down the back button to delete things and has no idea how to copy and paste on a laptop or highlight stuff to delete)
shops online happily usually, mostly on Amazon
Had a tantrum at the Jo Malone site when trying to order a present so rang them instead. He ended up raving about their customer service and got sent a load of free stuff so now prefers to ring them to order!

So they would have rejected the car for the same reasons rather than learn the new technology required?

No, I would say it is more that the oldies have a bit of common sense and can see the pitfalls, or don't appreciate the faffing around apps can cause. I am perfectly able to use technology and do so, but I prefer not to use apps and have very few on my phone, and I won't be forced to use technology I don't want to use.

Btw, learning something new is not resilience!

Yup! I do too…

They need to put a hand sanitizer next to it.

Yes it is good for your brain to learn something different, but surely the main benefit of being retired is that you learn what you want to learn, not things you don't. Technology bored me at work, there is no way I want to learn more about it in retirement. I stopped enjoying my working life once technology came along and we didn't have to use our brains to work things out.

It kinda is. Adaptation is what species do.

I use tech every day at work and am 61 but sometimes it baffles me, paying for parking, I press the button and it won't let me pay, I ask for help and turns out machine is faulty, but because I lack confidence and practice in certain situations I assume it's me. Also when your eyesight is not the best, that in some situations makes life difficult. 😔