20 years ago the helplessness was quaint, almost cute. Going to visit my grandparents when I was in middle school was almost like traveling back in time. No Internet, no videogame consoles. It was perfectly fine because they were in their 70’s and the Internet was still either a novelty or a convenience. They never bothered to learn because they thought they would be dead before they would need to.
Well, now they’re in their early 90’s. All their friends have been dead for at least a decade and my grandpa is almost completely blind. I would love to set him up with some lovely accessible devices to let him listen to music and audiobooks, maybe get him into podcasts. But it would be an incredible hurdle just to get him to agree to it. Not to mention all of their medical appointments where my mom has to help them with their online profiles. So many things you used to buy at the store you now have to go online for.
They managed to adapt just fine to telephones and television working out. At a certain point they just said “eh whatever, I’ll be dead before I need to learn this” and then went ahead and lived too long. I hope I never get like that, but at the same time I actively refuse to use new technologies that I’m opposed to. I don’t use AI, I don’t keep my credit cards on my phone, I don’t have a smart lock or thermostat in my home.
20 years ago the helplessness was quaint, almost cute. Going to visit my grandparents when I was in middle school was almost like traveling back in time. No Internet, no videogame consoles. It was perfectly fine because they were in their 70’s and the Internet was still either a novelty or a convenience. They never bothered to learn because they thought they would be dead before they would need to.
Well, now they’re in their early 90’s. All their friends have been dead for at least a decade and my grandpa is almost completely blind. I would love to set him up with some lovely accessible devices to let him listen to music and audiobooks, maybe get him into podcasts. But it would be an incredible hurdle just to get him to agree to it. Not to mention all of their medical appointments where my mom has to help them with their online profiles. So many things you used to buy at the store you now have to go online for.
They managed to adapt just fine to telephones and television working out. At a certain point they just said “eh whatever, I’ll be dead before I need to learn this” and then went ahead and lived too long. I hope I never get like that, but at the same time I actively refuse to use new technologies that I’m opposed to. I don’t use AI, I don’t keep my credit cards on my phone, I don’t have a smart lock or thermostat in my home.