08.04.10
Seniors and Cell Phones
It has become cliche to assume that old people don’t “do” technology. They don’t go online, they only use a third of the options on their microwave, and they never did figure out how to program that old VCR. (Don’t even get started about TiVo.) But is the cliche true?
[ad#ad-1]
Yes and no. We all know at least three seniors who are baffled by technologies we view as simple, and at least one who rejects the digital world with a great disdain. But don’t let them overshadow the ones who are embracing it.
Who are they? They are the ones right in front of you. The ones you wrote off as hopeless because they would not give Podcasting a fair shake. You never noticed the cell phone in their pockets, did you?
It has been a long march, but seniors are finally using mobile technology in great numbers. A recent study in Europe suggested that nine out of every ten senior citizens between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-five used a cell phone. Among those older, sixty percent still used one. Certainly, the American numbers will be lower because Europe’s digital networks came faster than those in the U.S. But even here, seniors have taken a liking to mobile phones, computing and even gaming.
Consider the most glaring example of all: The Nintendo Wii. It has been widely reported, even on this website, that the Nintendo Wii is popping up in Senior Centers, Retirement Villages, Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Communities all over the country. Elderly residents are rather charmed by the cool little box that lets them reinvent themselves in a digitized avatar. They might not be able to play racketball anymore, but they can take down their fellows in digital tennis.
[ad#ad-1]
The fact that the Wii has taken off so well has amazed millions of people who assumed that elderly attitudes toward technology are shifting significantly. And while that may be partly true, they overlooked a rather obvious fact: Our seniors aren’t as old as we sometimes think they are.
Think about it. The boom of the media revolution began in the 1980‘s when Atari had already been wowing young people for years. MTV launched in the middle of that decade. Personal computers were starting to pop up as well. And 24/7 news outlets from CNN to ESPN were emerging as well. Today’s seventy year old was in his forties when those things happened. He was plenty young enough to be able to understand (at least on some level) the media revolution he was seeing.
Surely, the digital age has come at an alarming, almost obnoxious pace for many of our loved ones, especially those in their 80‘s and 90‘s. There is no reason we should try to “convert†them to twenty-first century-ites. But the ones in their 60’s and 70‘s who are talking on cell phones while beating their grandkids at Wii Bowling? They are already convinced. In fact, that same European study found that two out of every three American Senior citizens had a positive attitude toward modern technology.
Alas, a new day has dawned for our elderly loved ones. No, they are not downloading Matlock from Bittorrent sites yet (give them time…), but they are using cell phones to talk on and occasionally text, and they are discovering that email is slightly faster than traditional letter writing.
Give them a hand! Our Elders are getting younger!